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I ULYSSES S 
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LOVELL COOMBS 




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TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS 



U. S. GRANT 



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Copyright t»y Underwood and Vnacruoou. 
President Ulysses S. Grant. 



U. S. GRANT 



BY 

LOVELL COOMBS 



When black the sky and dire with war, 

When every heart was wrung with fear, 
He rose serene, and took his place, 

The great occasion's mighty peer. 
He smote armed opposition down, 

He bade the storm and darkness cease, 
And o'er the long-distracted land 

Shone out the smiling sun of peace. 

In Memory of General Grant, 

— Henry Abbey. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1916 

All rights reserved 



EL 71 
.C ' 



Copyright, 1916, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 

Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1916. 



NotfaooU $«8B 

J. 8. Cushing Co. — Berwick A Smith Co. 

Norwood^, Mass., U.S.A. 



« T oo4, M 

FEB 24 1916 



0CI.A42O88 

'Wo . ( 



PREFACE 

The history of the United States, or of the 
world at large, does not record a more honorable, 
chivalrous, and courageous soldier, statesman, and 
gentleman than U. S. Grant. If the following 
story of his life serves to inspire in its young 
readers something of General Grant's high sense 
of honor, truthfulness, modesty, his thoughtful- 
ness for others, his dislike of all that was coarse, 
his respect for older people — and not only as a 
boy, but as General of all the armies of the United 
States, and during two terms as President — the 
writer will have achieved the inspiration that came 
from his own study of the life of this splendid 
American. 

Indebtedness is acknowledged to the excellent 
and interesting works on various phases of Gen- 
eral Grant's life by the following biographers: 

Adam Badeau, Henry Coppee, James T. Head- 
ley, Rev. P. C. Headley, Albert Deane Richard- 
son, Dana and Wilson, Colonel Nicholas Smith, 
George W. Childs, W. H. Van Orden, F. A. Burr, 
W. O. Stoddard, Captain Charles Eaton, Ringwalt, 
Swift, Hamlin Garland, Owen Wister, John Rus- 
sell Young, and General Grant's own " Memoirs." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

PAGH 

A Promising Boyhood i 



CHAPTER II 
School Days 15 

CHAPTER III 
A West Point Cadet ...... 26 

CHAPTER IV 
Early Days in the Army 32 

CHAPTER V 
In the Mexican War 38 

CHAPTER VI 

Exploits in Mexico 48 

vii 



viii TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGB 

Out of the Army 62 

CHAPTER VIII 
Early Days of the Civil War .... 74 

CHAPTER IX 
Some Early Conflicts 82 

CHAPTER X 
The Capture of Fort Donelson .... 94 

CHAPTER XI 
The Battle of Shiloh 105 

CHAPTER XII 
The Occupation of Corinth 113 

CHAPTER XIII 

VlCKSBURG ......... 121 



TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 

CHAPTER XIV 

PAGB 

Chattanooga 136 

CHAPTER XV 
General of All the Armies 144 

CHAPTER XVI 
The Battle of the Wilderness . . . -153 

CHAPTER XVII 
Spottsylvania !ij8 

CHAPTER XVIII 
The Fall of Richmond 166 

CHAPTER XIX 
The Surrender of Lee 172 

CHAPTER XX 
The Death of Lincoln 179 



X TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXI 

PAGB 

President Grant 190 

CHAPTER XXII 
Eight Years in the White House . . . 197 

CHAPTER XXIII 
The Trip Abroad . 208 

CHAPTER XXIV 
Turning toward Home 224 

CHAPTER XXV 
"Let Us Have Peace" 238 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



President Ulysses S. Grant . . . Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

General Grant's Birthplace 20 






General Grant as a Young Officer in the 

Mexican War 4° V 

General Grant in the Civil War . . . 100 y 

Passing the Boomlng Batteries at Vicksburg . 124 

After the Surrender at Appomattox . . . 176 



ULYSSES S. GRANT 

CHAPTER I 
A Promising Boyeood 

In the spring of 1839 an awkward, stocky, 
freckle-faced lad of seventeen, by some nicknamed 
"Useless," because of his " slowness," left his home 
in a small backwoods town in Ohio for the Mili- 
tary Academy at West Point. A few years passed, 
and the boy " Useless," after adventures as thrill- 
ing as those of any storybook, returned from the 
Mexican War a brevet captain of infantry, twice 
promoted for bravery in battle. 

A few years more, and " Useless," now the 
general of an army of 70,000 men, saw the white 
flag go up over Vicksburg, the " Gibraltar of the 
South," after one of the greatest sieges of history, 
and received the surrender of more than 30,000 
prisoners of war. 

Two years later "Useless" stood in Washington, 
at the right hand of the President, while for two 



2 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

whole days a great army marched by, and cheered 
and saluted him as their commander — the com- 
mander who had led them to victory and brought 
to an end the great Civil War. 

What boy, and especially what American boy, 
would not love to dream of living such a life of 
adventure and renown? And then to be made 
President of the United States ; and later to travel 
in foreign lands for two years, to be lionized every- 
where as probably no other man has been lionized 
in the history of the world ! 

Such were the fortunes of General U. S. Grant. 

Yet Ulysses Grant's early life was like that of 
thousands of other American boys. He was born 
in an unpretentious home, a small two-room cabin 
in the little village of Point Pleasant, Ohio, on the 
27th of April, 1822. His father, Jesse R. Grant, 
was a tanner. His mother had been Hannah 
Simpson, of an old Pennsylvania family. 

In the year following, the family moved to 
Georgetown, Ohio. And here it was that the future 
general and President grew up, — went to school, 
played, and worked between times, as he afterwards 
confessed, with no greater enthusiasm than other 
boys. 

But boy life in the Middle West in those days 
was not what it is to-day. There was a great deal 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD 3 

more of work and a great deal less of play. Besides 
the tannery, Ulysses' father owned a farm and some 
woodland ; and when Ulysses was seven years old 
he began hauling, with a team, all the firewood 
used in the house and tannery. At eleven he 
began doing all kinds of farm work. 

"From that age until seventeen," he tells in his 
"Memoirs," "I did all the work done with horses, 
such as breaking up the land, furrowing, plowing 
corn and potatoes, bringing in the crops when 
harvested, hauling all the wood, besides tending 
two or three horses, a cow or two, and sawing wood 
for the stoves, etc." 

What would you boys of to-day think of such a 
daily programme ? And attending school as well ? 

Yet Ulysses found no fault, and had a good time 
with the other boys when he could. He went 
fishing, went swimming at a swimming-hole in a 
creek a mile from the village; hunted berries, 
May apples, pawpaws, and nuts in the woods ; and 
in the winter went skating and coasting. 

In appearance Ulysses Grant was a short, stocky 
boy, with brownish hair, a round, frank face, 
freckled, and with friendly gray-blue eyes. In 
disposition he was quiet and easy-going, had a dis- 
like for coarse language which he never lost, and 
preferred the company of the quieter boys and girls 



4 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

of the neighborhood. He would always avoid a 
quarrel or a fight if possible — this future hard-fight- 
ing general — and did not care to hunt and kill 
things in the woods. He loved animals; every 
animal on his father's farm was a pet. 

For these reasons the rougher boys of the village 
undoubtedly would have looked down on Ulysses 
Grant as a "softy," but for the fact that he was one 
of the most daring coasters of the steep village 
hills in the winter, and was utterly fearless with 
horses. As it was, he was one of the most popular 
boys in Georgetown. 

Like most popular boys, Ulysses had a number of 
nicknames. Besides "Useless" — which was given 
him by many because of its similarity to his unusual 
name of Ulysses — he was known as 'Lyssus, 'Lys, 
and Hug. 

Needless to say, he did not care for the latter 
name. It was suggested by his initials, "H. U. G." 
Ulysses' full name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. The 
name by which he went into history, "U. S. Grant," 
was the result of an accident, as we shall later see. 

The selection of the unusual middle name came 
about in this way. A family conference was held 
to select a name for the new baby. There was such 
a difference of opinion that it was finally decided 
to write the names suggested on slips of paper, and 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD 5 

drop the slips into a hat. The mother wrote Albert, 
an aunt wrote Theodore, Grandfather Simpson 
wrote Hiram, and Grandmother Simpson, who had 
been reading ancient history, chose the name of 
the Greek hero Ulysses. The last two were the 
names drawn from the hat. 

"Ulysses Grant's " cleverness " with horses was 
probably his most notable characteristic as a boy. 
The faculty showed itself in him when but a baby. 
It is related that his greatest delight was to toddle 
around the feet of the horses standing in his father's 
tannery yard. On one occasion, it is told, a neigh- 
bor rushed in to Mrs. Grant to tell her that little 
'Lyssus was "out in the yard swinging about by 
the tails of Loudon's horses." 

A particular feat of horsemanship that fixed 
Ulysses' reputation among the other boys of 
Georgetown was this : A traveling circus came 
to town. One of the features of its programme 
was a prize of five dollars offered to any boy who 
could ride a certain trick pony. The pony was a 
fat, round-bodied, spirited little animal, with a 
closely cropped mane, and was trained to its work. 
Five dollars was a big sum to win at "one lick," 
as the Georgetown boys declared, and would-be 
riders came forward eagerly. They did not come 
a bit too fast for the pony. One after the other 



6 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

he sent them flying over his head, to get up sheep- 
ishly with a handful of tan bark instead of the cov- 
eted five dollars. Finally there were no more can- 
didates left. Ulysses, who had been looking on, 
said in his usual quiet way, 

"I believe I could ride him." 

" Go ahead! Go ahead!" urged the other boys 
quickly. 

Ulysses hesitated, then stepped into the ring. 

While the expectantly grinning clown acting 
as ringmaster held the pony, Ulysses sprang up 
on its back. The clown let go, the pony dropped 
its head and kicked up its heels. When it came 
down, Ulysses was still there. The pony waggled 
its head and tried again. With his knees closely 
gripping its sides and his arms about its neck, 
Ulysses held his seat. The pony almost stood 
on its head, kicked skyward, raced madly round the 
ring, pulled up all standing, switched this way and 
that, and again tried to stand on its head. And 
still, while the crowd cheered, Ulysses stuck. 
Seeing his five dollars going, the clown urged the 
pony on with whip and voice. But the eleven- 
year-old boy was not to be unseated, and finally the 
pony stood with heaving sides, defeated. Ulysses 
slipped to the ground, and, to an accompaniment 
of enthusiastic applause, received his five dollars. 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD 7 

Another feat that Ulysses performed with horses 
was of a more practical kind, and took place in the 
quiet of the woods instead of before an admiring 
crowd. It showed a fine spirit of determination 
to finish a job under difficulties — the same spirit 
of determination we shall later see in face of a 
much greater "job." 

His father had taken a contract to supply logs 
for the building of a jail. These logs were heavy 
timbers, a foot square and fourteen feet in length. 
Several men were required to load them on the 
wagon upon which Ulysses drew them into town. 

One morning Ulysses went for his load as usual. 
Reaching the woods, he found no one there to load 
the timbers. He waited, but the cutters failed to 
appear. 

How many boys would have thought only of re- 
turning home? 

But not Ulysses. He considered the problem. 
Near the waiting timbers was a half-fallen tree; 
one which the fall of a larger tree had brought partly 
down and left lodged in a neighboring oak. 

Ulysses removed one of the horses from the 
wagon, hitched it to an end of one of the trimmed 
timbers, and hauled the timber up the sloping 
trunk of the half-fallen tree until it leaned there, 
partially upright. When the required number of 



8 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

timbers had thus been " stood up," he returned the 
horse to its place in the team, backed the wagon 
under the leaning timbers, and worked them 
down into it. 

The sequel to the incident illustrated another 
trait of Ulysses' which stayed with him through 
life — an entire lack of vanity. On reaching home 
with the load, instead of boastfully relating what 
he had done, he merely remarked to his father, 

"Father, I reckon it's hardly worth while for me 
to go again to-day. None of the cutters are in the 
woods. There is only one load left. If I get that 
now, there will be none for me to haul to-morrow." 

"Why, where are the cutters?" his father asked. 

"At home, I suppose. They haven't been in 
the woods to-day." 

"But — who loaded the logs?" Mr. Grant de- 
manded, mystified. 

"I did, with the horses," replied Ulysses. And 
then he explained. 

Mr. Grant is said to have been very proud of 
this feat of his son's. 

Since Ulysses was so resourceful and capable, it is 
not surprising that his father should have intrusted 
him with missions that, to-day at least, would be 
considered beyond the ability of a mere boy. In 
addition to his tanning, Jesse Grant did an occa- 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD 9 

sional livery business between Georgetown and 
points as far distant as Chillicothe, some seventy 
miles. For at that time there were no railroads in 
Ohio, and travel between inland towns was carried 
on entirely by horse or wagon. Ulysses was on 
several occasions sent on these long drives, with 
travelers, or families moving to or from George- 
town. 

In his " Memoirs" General Grant speaks of 
these journeys at some length, as well as of other 
interesting experiences which the love of horses 
prevented him from ever forgetting. 

" While still quite young," he relates, "I had 
visited Cincinnati, forty-five miles away, several 
times, alone ; also Maysville, Kentucky, often, and 
once Louisville. The journey to Louisville was 
a big one for a boy of that day. I had also gone 
once with a two-horse carriage to Chillicothe, about 
seventy miles, with a neighbor's family who were 
removing to Toledo, Ohio, and returned alone ; and 
had gone once in like manner to Flat Rock, Ken- 
tucky, about seventy miles away. On this latter 
occasion I was fifteen years of age. While at Flat 
Rock ... I saw a very fine saddle horse, and 
proposed to Mr. Payne, the owner, to trade him 
for one of the two I was driving. Payne hesitated 
to trade with a boy, but asking his brother about 



io ULYSSES S. GRANT 

it, the latter told him that it would be all right, 
that I was allowed to do as I pleased with the 
horses. I was seventy miles from home, with a 
carriage to take back, and Mr. Payne said he did 
not know that his horse had ever had a collar on. 
I asked to have him hitched to a farm wagon. . . . 
It was soon evident that the horse had never worn 
harness before ; but he showed no viciousness, and 
I expressed a confidence that I could manage him. 
A trade was at once struck, I receiving ten dollars 
difference. 

"The next day Mr. Payne of Georgetown and I 
started on our return. We got along very well for 
a few miles, when we encountered a ferocious dog 
that frightened the horses and made them run. 
The new animal kicked at every jump he made. 
I got the horses stopped, however, before any 
damage was done, and without running into any- 
thing. After giving them a little rest, to quiet their 
fears, we started again. That instant the new 
horse kicked, and started to run once more. The 
road we were on struck the turnpike within half 
a mile of the point where the second runaway com- 
menced, and there was an embankment twenty 
or more feet deep on the opposite side of the pike. 
I got the horses stopped on the very brink of the 
precipice. My new horse was terribly frightened, 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD n 

and trembled like an aspen; but he was not half 
so badly frightened as my companion, Mr. Payne, 
who deserted me after this last experience, and 
took passage on a freight wagon for Maysville. 
Every time I attempted to start, my new horse 
would commence to kick. I was in quite a dilemma 
for a time. Once in Maysville, I could borrow a 
horse from an uncle who lived there; but I was 
more than a day's travel from that point. Finally 
I took out my bandanna handkerchief, and with 
this blindfolded my horse. In this way I reached 
Maysville safely the next day, no doubt much to 
the surprise of my friend. Here I borrowed a 
horse from my uncle, and the following day we 
proceeded on our journey. ,, 

Still another horse story is frequently told of 
Grant when eight years old. Living near George- 
town was a Mr. Ralston who owned a colt to 
which Ulysses had taken a great fancy. He 
finally persuaded his father to make an offer for 
it. Mr. Grant offered twenty dollars, but Mr. 
Ralston demanded twenty-five. Ulysses begged 
his father to offer the price asked, and at last re- 
ceived permission to give the twenty-five, after 
first going to Mr. Ralston and offering him twenty, 
then twenty-two-fifty. 



12 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Ulysses made his way to Mr. Ralston's house 
and said: "Mr. Ralston, Papa says I may offer 
you twenty dollars for the colt, but if you won't 
take it, I am to offer you twenty-two and a half; 
and if you won't take that, I am to give you twenty- 
five." 

Needless to say, the small horse buyer paid the 
twenty-five. 

Of every great man's boyhood there are stories 
told which are related in different ways. Occa- 
sionally there are stories about which there is 
some doubt. This is especially true in the case 
of stories predicting future greatness. 

A number of such stories are told of Ulysses 
Grant. One story relates that when a baby in 
his mother's arms, during a Fourth of July celebra- 
tion, a pistol was fired off close beside him. In- 
stead of being frightened, the future soldier laughed 
and lisped, "Fik it again ! Fik it again !" 

Another story, of which there are several ver- 
sions, tells of a phrenologist who, after examining 
Ulysses' head, declared he would one day be 
President of the United States. One version of 
this incident is as follows : 

At a public lecture on head-reading a certain 
Dr. Buckner in the audience, who was somewhat 



A PROMISING BOYHOOD 13 

skeptical, asked the lecturer to examine a head 
while blindfolded. The lecturer consented, and 
when a handkerchief had been secured about his 
eyes, Ulysses Grant was brought forward and 
placed before him. The phrenologist felt over the 
lad's head for some time. Finally he announced, 
"This is no common head. It is an extraordinary 
head." 

"Will he distinguish himself in mathematics ?" 
Dr. Buckner asked. 

"Yes," was the reply; "in mathematics, or 
anything else. In fact, it would not be strange if 
we should one day see this boy President of the 
United States." 

Another version of the incident is quite different. 
Ulysses' father, who was a rather talkative man, 
firmly believed in a great future for Ulysses, and 
frequently spoke of it. To his neighbors, who 
could see nothing unusual in the boy, this had 
come to be a joke. Consequently when, at the 
lecture, volunteers were called for to have their 
heads "read," Ulysses was one of the first urged 
to the platform. 

As he came forward, the crowd began to look 
at one another and chuckle. At once the lecturer 
grasped the situation. It was another case of the 
stupid son of a doting father. He had played a 



I 4 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

part in the same kind of joke a dozen times before. 
And while the crowd roared with laughter, he felt 
over Ulysses' head and solemnly announced that 
"this wonderful boy would some day be President 
of the United States." 

Whatever the truth may have been, it is quite 
possible that the prediction finally determined 
Jesse Grant on giving Ulysses the best education 
that lay in his power. 



CHAPTER II 
School Days 

The schools of Ulysses Grant's boyhood would 
be considered very crude to-day. They were 
private, or subscription, schools, and were held 
in any convenient house or other building. Often 
the teachers were men of little training, and only 
the "three R's" were taught, "Reading, 'Riting 
and 'Rithmetic." Ulysses Grant never saw an 
algebra until he went to West Point. The whip 
or rod was used freely, and even the quiet Ulysses 
was "not exempt from its influence," as he later 
termed it. 

"I can see John D. White, the school-teacher, 
now," he wrote, "with his long beech switch always 
in his hand. It was not always the same one, 
either. Switches were brought in bundles from a 
beech wood near the schoolhouse by the boys for 
whose benefit they were intended. Often a whole 
bundle would be used up in a single day." 

The whippings aroused no particular resentment 
among the boys, however. "Birching " was looked 

is 



1 6 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

upon as a natural and necessary part of teaching. 
It was the system under which the teacher himself 
had studied when a boy. 

Except in arithmetic, Ulysses was not a brilliant 
scholar. He could draw well, but drawing was 
not taught. One noteworthy characteristic he had 
in studying. Once he had tackled a problem, he 
wanted no help from any one, but would keep 
at it doggedly until he had mastered it for himself. 

Ulysses attended school in Georgetown until 
he was fourteen. In the winter of that year his 
father sent him to the Maysville Seminary, at 
Maysville, Kentucky, some twenty miles from 
Georgetown. There Ulysses proved the same 
quiet, pleasant, popular lad ; and, according to one 
of his teachers, ranked well in all his classes, 
his deportment ^>eing especially good. 

An old record book tells interestingly of Ulysses' 
connection at Maysville with a literary and de- 
bating club, the Philomathean Society. The 
record shows that he was enrolled as a member of 
the society on January 3, 1837, an d took part 
in a debate that evening. 

The subject of the debate on that occasion was : 
" Resolved, that the Texans were not justifiable 
in giving Santa Anna his liberty," and "H. U. 
Grant" is recorded as one of those arguing on the 



SCHOOL DAYS 17 

affirmative side. The topic of the next meeting 
was : " Resolved, that females yield greater influence 
in society than males." Again Ulysses was on 
the affirmative side, which won. 

The third discussion in which "H. U. Grant" 
took part is of especial interest, along with the 
fact that he took the affirmative side. The ques- 
tion was : " Resolved, that it would not be just and 
politic to liberate the slaves at this time." And 
the affirmative side was declared to have presented 
the stronger argument. 

The topic of the succeeding meeting is also of 
peculiar interest: " Resolved, that intemperance 
is a greater evil than war." Again Ulysses spoke 
for the affirmative. 

At the thirty-seventh meeting "Mr. Grant" 
moved a resolution: "Resolved, that it be con- 
sidered out of order for any member to speak on 
the opposite side to which he is placed." On the 
same evening he was elected a member of the 
society committee. 

Other debates in which the future President 
took part were these : — 

" Resolved, that Socrates was right in not es- 
caping when the prison doors were opened to him." 

"Resolved, that the writer deserves more praise 
than the orator." 



18 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

" Resolved, that Columbus deserves more praise 
for discovering America than Washington does for 
defending it." 

Ulysses was given the negative side of this ques- 
tion; and also on the question, " Resolved, that 
America can boast of as great men as any other 
nation." 

The date of this latter debate was recorded as 
March 27, 1837. This is the last entry made in 
the record book of the young student from George- 
town. Probably Ulysses was called home to the 
farm, to " debate" on the affirmative side of the 
spring plowing ! 

Ulysses seldom worked in his father's tannery. 
In fact, from a child he had disliked the tannery. 
He never became accustomed to its unpleasant 
odors. The possibility of some day having to 
engage in this business had always been a bugbear 
to him. 

One morning they were short of help in the tan- 
nery, and his father said to him, 

"Ulysses, you will have to go into the beam room 
and help me to-day." 

The beam room, where the ill-smelling hides 
were stretched and scraped, the boy especially 
abhorred. Reluctantly he accompanied his father, 
and on the way to the building he remarked, 



SCHOOL DAYS 19 

"Father, this tanning is not the kind of work I 
like. I'll work at it, though, if you wish me to, 
until I am twenty-one. But you may depend 
upon it, I'll never work a day longer at it after 
that." 

Jesse Grant was a strict man, but reasonable 
and fair. 

"My son," he replied, "I don't want you to 
work at it now if you don't like it, and don't mean 
to stick at it. I want you to work at whatever 
you like and intend to follow. Now, what do you 
think you would like?" 

"I'd like to be a farmer, or a river trader, or 
get an education," was Ulysses' response. 

" How would you like to go to West Point?" 
his father asked. "You know the education is 
free there, and the Government supports the 
cadets." 

"First rate," declared Ulysses promptly. 

The following winter Ulysses was sent to school 
at Ripley, some ten miles from Georgetown. 
While home during the Christmas vacation his 
father received a letter. After reading it he said 
to his son, "Ulysses, I believe you are going to 
receive the appointment." 

"What appointment?" 

"To West Point. I have applied for it." 



20 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Strange as it may seem, the future great com- 
mander had no natural inclination whatever 
toward soldiering, and had made up his mind 
that he did not want to go to the Military 
Academy. 

"I'D not go," he is said to have replied. 

"I think you will," responded his father. 

"And I thought so, too, if he did," relates the 
general in his "Memoirs." The humorous re- 
mark hinted at the strict discipline in the Grant 
family, as well as the unquestioning respect Ulysses 
showed his parents' wishes. 

Final word came of the appointment to the cadet- 
ship, and preparations were begun to send Ulysses 
away. When the news spread through the village, 
a good deal of fun was made of it. Some found 
fault, and asked why a boy had not been chosen 
who would "be a credit to Georgetown." 

Trunks were not to be bought in Georgetown 
at that time, and one was ordered made by the 
local "handy man." When it came, it was the 
cause of another "name" incident for Ulysses. 
On the cover the maker had traced the young 
traveler's initials in large brass tacks, "H. U. G." 

Like any other lad, Ulysses objected. "The 
boys at the Academy will call me 'Hug' right from 
the start-off," he declared. "I won't have it." 



ff r 






__j^^^^^ 

- 



'^?- 



Mi 




SCHOOL DAYS 21 

And forthwith he pulled out the tacks and re- 
arranged them to read, "U. H. G." 

It was in May, 1839, that Ulysses set out for 
West Point, on what was then a long journey by 
stage, river steamer, canal boat and train. The 
canal trip took the young traveler from Pittsburgh 
to Harrisburg ; and at the last-named place Ulysses 
began his first ride on a railroad. "We traveled 
at least eighteen miles an hour when at full speed/ ' 
he wrote home, describing the wonderful experi- 
ence, "and made the whole distance averaging 
probably as much as twelve miles an hour. This 
seemed like annihilating space." 

He spent several days in Philadelphia, and "saw 
about everything in the city"; which was "kept 
so clean," he wrote, "that it looks as though it 
were always fixed up for Sunday." 

He stopped with relatives, two elderly ladies, 
who afterwards described him as a "rather awk- 
ward country boy, wearing plain, ill-fitting clothes, 
and coarse shoes which were as broad at the toes 
as at the widest part of the soles." 

Continuing his journey, Ulysses spent some 
time in New York, and finally reached West Point 
on the 26th of May. He stopped that night at 
Roe's Hotel, and registered as "U. H. Grant." 
The following morning he reported to the adju- 



22 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

tant's office at the Military Academy. He signed 
himself on the books there as " Ulysses Hiram 
Grant." 

This brings us to the accident by which he be- 
came known for all time as "U. S. Grant." 

The Hon. Thomas Hamer, who had the ap- 
pointment of the cadetship, received the re- 
quest for the nomination from Ulysses Grant's 
father only the day before the close of his term 
at Washington. He wrote hurriedly to the Sec- 
retary of War, and, knowing only that the boy's 
name was Ulysses, made a guess that his middle 
name would be the maiden name of his mother, 
Simpson. Therefore he wrote " Ulysses Simpson 
Grant." 

This was the name Ulysses found on the papers 
forwarded from Washington to West Point. He 
asked to have the name corrected, but the adjutant 
declared a change could not be made without the 
consent of the Secretary of War. 

"Very well," said Ulysses. "An initial or more 
does not matter." 

And thus it was that the initials of the future 
great general and president became those of his 
country, "U. S." Grant. 

When he had filled in the necessary papers at the 
Academy office, Ulysses was sent to the old South 



SCHOOL DAYS 23 

Barracks, to report to the cadet officers. On the 
way he received his first lesson in what a freshman, 
or "plebe," was to expect at the Academy. He 
was greeted with derisive yells, such as "What an 
animal!" "Who is your tailor?" "Does your 
mother know you're out?" 

At headquarters the cadet corporals took charge 
of him. He was told that the first duty of a soldier 
was to stand erect. He was ordered to "throw 
out his chest," and "fix his eyes on a tack in the 
wall." Then various questions were asked in a 
seemingly polite manner, 

"Mr. Grant, what have you brought from 
home?" 

Naturally he turned toward the speaker. In a 
yell he was ordered to "Keep your eyes to the 
front, sir!" 

He was told that the second duty of a cadet was 
to keep his eyes to the front if the heavens fell. 
He was made to "fin out" — to place his little 
fingers to the seams of his trousers, and turn his 
palms to the front. After a further mixture of 
hazing and instruction he was sent to the quarter- 
master for his outfit. 

This consisted of two blankets, a pillow, a water- 
pail, a broom, a chair, etc. All these articles he 
was compelled to carry, on the handle of the 



24 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

broom, past the officers' quarters, then past the 
cadets, who looked on and shouted various 
comments. 

West Point of those days was a primitive es- 
tablishment compared to the West Point of to-day. 
For two weeks, with other newcomers, Cadet 
Grant slept on the floor, on two thin blankets, in 
an upper room of the old North Barracks. Rufus 
Ingalls was his roommate. 

It was a disappointing introduction to the in- 
teresting life Ulysses had anticipated. Most of 
the boys, like himself, had come long distances, 
were away from home for the first time, and so at 
times were much depressed and homesick. The 
drill and the setting-up exercises were severe, and 
the upper-classmen indulged in continuous hazing, 
or "plebe jumping." 

The homemade clothing of many of the new 
cadets was one object of much joking. For uni- 
forms were not given out until the preliminary 
examinations were passed. 

Somewhat to Ulysses' surprise, he passed these 
preliminary tests without trouble. At once he 
was given his uniform, and recognized as a full- 
fledged West Pointer. 

When the list of new cadets was posted in the 
hall of the barracks, a group of senior cadets 



SCHOOL DAYS 25 

gathered to read them. The name U. S. Grant 
attracted attention immediately. 

" United States Grant," read one. 

"Uncle Sam Grant," read another. 

The last name stuck. And so, during his years 
at the Academy, and later as a young officer in 
the army, Ulysses was known as "Sam Grant." 



CHAPTER III 
A West Point Cadet 

There is not a great deal on record concerning 
Ulysses Grant's life at West Point. His experiences 
were probably the same as those of other young 
cadets, and his first day was a fair example of his 
first year. The drill was hard, discipline was 
strict, between times there was study; and the 
senior cadets lost no opportunity of impressing on 
the seventeen-year-old "plebe"that he was of little 
consequence. 

The day began with "Reveille" at 5 a.m. in 
the summer, and an hour later in winter.- Roll 
call followed, after that the cleaning of arms and 
accouterments, and inspection of rooms thirty 
minutes after roll call. Then came a study-hour 
of lessons to be recited during the morning. 

At 7 o'clock the breakfast bugle was blown, and 
the cadets marched to the dining hall. "Troop" 
and guard mounting followed at 7.30, and morn- 
ing parade at 8 when in summer camp. Recita- 
tion and study filled the remainder of the morning 

26 



A WEST POINT CADET 27 

until dinner call, at 1 o'clock. A half hour's 
recreation followed dinner, then study or drawing 
till 4, military exercises for an hour or more, and 
again a short "recess." Evening parade was held 
at sunset, then came the call for supper. A half 
hour later " Quarters" was sounded, which meant 
study till 9.30. Taps, or lights out, was blown 
at 10. 

So it will be seen that life at West Point in 1839 
was no "snap." 

In addition to their other work, the cadets had 
to make their own beds, carry water for their 
rooms, and scrub the floors. Floor scrubbing 
was the regular order for each Saturday. 

The food at that time was far from the best. 
A fellow cadet of Grant's, General Franklin, de- 
scribed it thus : — 

"Breakfast was quite generally hashed beef, 
with coffee. Dinner, roast beef or boiled beef, 
with sometimes fish or mutton. Mutton was not 
a popular dish. We used to ' baa ' like a sheep when 
we came into the dining room. I think we had a 
table cover, but I am not certain. Of this I am 
certain : our forks were of the two-tined, bone- 
handled variety, and from long washing in hot, 
greasy water they had decomposed, and they gave 
a horrible smell, which no old cadet can forget as 



28 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

long as he lives. It was horrible. 'Tea' was 
largely tea and very little besides, and the boys 
used to provide for it by sticking a fork into a 
big hunk of beef from the dinner and jabbing it 
fast under the table. This, when unperceived by 
the 'Tack' [tactical officer], helped out the starva- 
tion form of 'Tea.'" 

The limited fare led to frequent "foraging on 
the enemy," as it was called. Potatoes, meat, 
bread, salt, etc., would be smuggled from the table 
at noon, and enjoyed as a midnight "spread." 

The manner of preparing the feast would have 
caused the mothers of the cadets to raise their 
hands in horror. 

"This stuff we put into a pillowcase, and at 
night we beat it up with a bayonet, and cooked it 
over the grate, which was of anthracite coal and 
quite handy. Our dishes were slices of bread or 
toast. These were 'cadet hashes,' and were an 
institution in our day. No man, no cadet officer, 
in fact, was ever known to refuse an invitation to 
a cadet hash. I don't particularly recall Grant 
in this connection, but as he was a farmer boy, 
and a growing boy, I've no doubt he accepted 
every possible chance to eat cadet hash." 

That Grant was ready for extra "eats" is borne 
out by another story. One night a chicken was 



A WEST POINT CADET 29 

being roasted in Grant's room, when an officer 
was heard at the door. Grant hid the chicken 
and saucepan, and stood at attention before the 
fire, with face quite impassive. The officer en- 
tered. Grant saluted. The officer walked round 
the room, looking very hard at the ceiling and 
walls, where nothing could be seen. 

"Mr. Grant, I think there is a peculiar smell 
in your room," he remarked. 

"I've noticed it, sir," replied Grant. 

"Be careful that something does not catch fire." 

"Thank you, sir," said Grant, saluting. 

Notwithstanding the hardships of the life, 
Ulysses did not permit himself to become dis- 
gruntled. This is proved by a letter written to 
a cousin, McKinstry Griffith, when he had been 
at the Academy some six months. It is a natural, 
boyish letter, and for the most part very well 
written, showing the result of reading worth-while 
books. It also shows a love of fun and humor, 
and a thoughtfulness for old people that is always 
a good sign in a boy. 

It was dated September 22, 1839 : — 

Dear Coz : I was just thinking that you would be right 
glad to hear from one of your relations who is so far away as 
I am. So I have put away my algebra and French, and am 
going to tell you a long story about this prettiest of places, 



3° 



ULYSSES S. GRANT 



West Point. So far as it regards natural attractions it is 
decidedly the most beautiful place that I have ever seen. 
Here are hills and dales, rocks and rivers ; all pleasant to 
look upon . . . but I am not one to show false colors, or 
the brightest side of the picture, so I will tell you about some 
of the drawbacks. First, I slept for two months upon one 
single pair of blankets. Now this sounds romantic, and you 
may think it very easy, but I tell you what, Coz, it is tre- 
mendous hard. . . . 

We are now in our quarters. I have a splendid bed 
[mattress], and get along very well. Our pay is nominally 
about twenty-eight dollars a month, but we never see a cent 
of it. If we wish anything, from a shoe string to a coat, we 
must go to the commandant of the post and get an order for 
it, or we cannot have it. We have tremendously long and 
hard lessons to get, in both French and algebra. I study 
hard, and hope to get along so as to pass the examination in 
January. The examination is a hard one, they say; but 
I am not frightened yet. If I am successful here you will 
not see me for two long years. It seems a long while to me, 
but time passes off very fast. It seems but a few days since 
I came here. It is because every hour has its duty, which 
must be performed. On the whole I like the place very much ; 
so much that I would not go away on any account. The fact 
is, if a man graduates here, he is safe for life, let him go where 
he will. There is much to dislike, but more to like. I 
mean to study hard and stay if it be possible ; if I cannot, 
very well, the world is wide. I have now been here about 
four months, and have not seen a single familiar face or 
spoken to a single lady. I wish some of the pretty girls of 
Bethel were here, just so I might look at them. But fudge ! 
confound the pretty girls. I have seen great men, plenty 



A WEST POINT CADET 31 

of them. Let me see: General Scott, Mr. Van Buren, 
Secretary of War and Navy, Washington Irving, and lots 
of other big bugs. If I were to come home with my uniform 
on, the way you would laugh at my appearance would be 
curious. My pants set so tight to my skin as the bark to a 
tree, and if I do not walk military — that is, if I bend over 
quickly or run — they are very apt to crack, with a report 
as loud as a pistol. My coat must always be buttoned up 
tight to the chin. It is made of sheep's gray cloth, all cov- 
ered with big round buttons. It makes one look very singu- 
lar. If you were to see me at a distance, the first question 
you would ask would be, "Is that a fish or an animal?" 
You must give my very best love and respect to all my 
friends, particularly your brothers, Uncles Ross, and Samuel 
Simpson. You must also write me a long letter in reply to 
this, and tell me about everything and everybody, including 
yourself. . . . 

I am truly your cousin and obedient servant, 

U. H. Grant. 
McKinstry Griffith. 

N. B. In coming I stopped five days in Philadelphia 
with our friends. They are all well. Tell Grandmother 
Simpson that they always have expected to see her before, 
but have almost given up the idea now. They hope to hear 
from her often. . . . 

When I come home in two years, the way I shall astonish 
you natives will be curious. I hope you will not take me 
for a baboon. 

My best respects to Grandmother Simpson. I think often 
of her. I put this on the margin so that you will remember 
it better. I want you to show her this letter and all others 
that I may write to you. . . . 



CHAPTER IV 
Early Days in the Army 

When two years had passed at the Military 
Academy, Cadet Grant was given his first furlough. 
In the interval his parents had moved from George- 
town to Bethel, Ohio, a smaller place nearer Cin- 
cinnati. Here he returned to them, several inches 
taller, straighter, and in a neat " undress" uniform, 
a blue sack coat and white duck trousers. Needless 
to say, he was quite a hero to his younger brothers 
and sisters, and to the other boys and girls of Bethel 
and Georgetown. And like any other boy, Ulysses 
enjoyed it. His father had bought him a fine 
young colt to use during his vacation,' and he fre- 
quently rode over to Georgetown to visit his 
friends there. Especially, it is said, he went to 
visit a certain young lady who doubtless was proud 
to receive a call from the handsome young cadet 
on his dashing charger. 

The vacation passed so happily and quickly that 
when the end of the summer came Ulysses returned 
to West Point reluctantly. An addition to the 

32 



EARLY DAYS IN THE ARMY 33 

drill course which was made at that time soon put 
him in good spirits, however. This was the cavalry 
drill. His love for horses at once interested him 
in the new exercises, and he quickly distinguished 
himself as a rider. 

Without any unusual incident the year passed, 
and the next year; and the spring of 1843 saw 
Cadet Grant, now twenty-one years old, at the end 
of his four years of training. He passed his final 
examinations the twenty-first in a class of thirty- 
nine, with a good record in mathematics and 
engineering, a fair record in other subjects, and an 
unusual record as a horseman. 

The final test in horsemanship was a jumping 
contest, in which a hundred cadets took part. 
One by one they dropped out as the bar was 
raised, until finally only Cadet Grant was left. 
His last jump was at a height of five feet, six and a 
half inches. This mark still stands at the Academy. 

General James B. Frye, also of the Civil War, 
tells of another jumping incident of which Cadet 
Grant was the leading figure. 

"One afternoon in June, 1843," ne relates, 
"while I was at West Point, a candidate for ad- 
mission to the Military Academy, I wandered into 
the riding hall, where the members of the graduat- 
ing class were going through their final mounted 



34 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

exercises before Major Richard Delaneld, the Super- 
intendent, the Academic Board, and a large assem- 
blage of spectators. 

"When the regular services were completed, 
the class, still mounted, was formed in line through 
the center of the hall. The riding master placed 
the leaping bar higher than a man's head, and called 
out, 'Cadet Grant!' 

"A clean-faced, slender young fellow, weighing 
about one hundred and twenty pounds, dashed 
from the ranks on a powerfully-built chestnut- 
sorrel horse, and galloped down the opposite side 
of the hall. As he turned at the farther end and 
came into the straight stretch across which the 
bar was placed, the horse increased his pace and 
measured his stride for the great leap before him, 
bounded into the air, and cleared the bar, carrying 
his rider as if man and beast were welded together. 
The spectators were breathless. 

"'Very well done, sir,' growled old Herschberger, 
the riding master (who seldom permitted himself 
to be complimentary), and the class was dismissed." 

When the feat was spoken of to Cadet Grant, 
as frequently happened, he always modestly gave 
the credit to the horse, saying, "Yes, York was a 
wonderfully good horse." 

On leaving West Point, cadets are allowed to 



EARLY DAYS IN THE ARMY 35 

choose the branch of military service they prefer. 
Naturally, Ulysses Grant chose the cavalry. 
Unfortunately, however, the cavalry force at the 
time was very small, and was already over-officered. 
Consequently, the would-be cavalryman was com- 
pelled to become an infantryman, and was made 
a brevet second lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry. 

After a short vacation at home, he was ordered 
to report for duty at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. 
In 1843 St. Louis was a "far western" town and 
an important military post. The barracks, situated 
on a height overlooking the Mississippi River, 
were large whitewashed stone buildings, arranged in 
a square. They accommodated a large garrison of 
sixteen infantry companies. 

As elsewhere, Brevet Lieutenant Grant, still 
quiet, unassuming, and agreeable, became a favorite 
at once, and soon settled down to a quiet enjoy- 
ment of the life there. The routine was not severe, 
and the young officer found considerable time on 
his hands. 

This fact presently developed an interesting 
romance. One of Ulysses Grant's roommates at 
West Point had been a young Southerner, Frederick 
Dent. The Dent family lived on a fine plantation 
not far from St. Louis. Not unnaturally, because 
of his acquaintance with the son, Ulysses found 



36 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

his way there. And very shortly he was finding 
his way there for another reason — Miss Julia 
Dent. 

Though generally pleasant, life at the barracks 
was not all roses. The Fourth Infantry at the 
time had an officers' dining club, or " officers' 
mess," of which Captain Robert Buchanan was 
president. Captain Buchanan was a martinet, 
and particularly severe upon young officers. It 
was one of the rules of the mess that any one coming 
in after soup had been served should be fined a 
bottle of wine. After Lieutenant Grant began 
paying serious attentions to Miss Dent, he would 
frequently get excused from the afternoon parade, 
ride out to the Dent plantation, and make a call. 
As a result he was frequently late for dinner. 
Three times in ten days he appeared "after soup" 
and was fined. The fourth time he arrived late, 
Captain Buchanan said, — 

" Grant, you are late, as usual ; another bottle 
of wine, sir." 

Grant rose quietly and replied, 

"Mr. President, I have been fined three bottles 
of wine within the last ten days, and if I am fined 
again I shall be obliged to repudiate." 

The officer at the head of the table retorted 
with a show of ill temper, 



EARLY DAYS IN THE ARMY 37 

"Mr. Grant, young people should be seen and 
not heard, sir!" 

The incident was trivial, but later it had serious 
consequences for the younger officer. It planted 
in Captain Buchanan's mind the seeds of a dislike 
which a few years later played a part by affecting 
the whole subsequent course of Grant's life. 



CHAPTER V 
In the Mexican War 

Graver matters than the unfriendliness of a 
superior officer, or even a romance, presently 
loomed up, however. The war with Mexico was 
brewing. Texas, formerly a part of Mexico, had 
seceded and set up a government of its own. The 
Southern states wanted Texas admitted to the 
Union, and under President Polk's administration 
she was so admitted. But Mexico never had recog- 
nized the independence of Texas. Hence a war 
between the United States and Mexico resulted. 

With other American forces, the Fourth Infantry 
was ordered from St. Louis to Fort Jessup, in Louisi- 
ana ; and a year later it was sent, with the army 
under General Zachary Taylor, to the Rio Grande. 

The first part of the campaign that followed is 
interestingly described in a letter written by 
Lieutenant Grant from Matamoros, Mexico, June 
26, 1846. 

From Corpus Christi to Matamoros, both near 
the Gulf of Mexico, the little army of three thousand 

38 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 39 

men had to march south " through a long, sandy 
desert covered with salt ponds," he wrote, "and in 
one or two instances ponds of drinkable water 
were separated by a whole day's march. The 
troops suffered much, but stood it like men. . . . 

" About the last of April we got word of the enemy 
crossing the river, no doubt with the intention of 
cutting us off from our supplies at Point Isabel. 
On the 1st of April at 3 o'clock General Taylor 
started with about 2000 men to go after and escort 
the wagon train from Point Isabel, and with the 
determination to cut his way, no matter how su- 
perior their numbers. 

"Our march on this occasion was as severe as 
could be made. Until 3 o'clock that night we 
scarcely halted ; then we lay down in the grass and 
took a little sleep, and marched the balance of 
the way the next morning. Our march was mostly 
through grass up to the waist, with a wet and un- 
even bottom, yet we made thirty miles in much 
less than a day. . . . The next morning after our 
arrival at Point Isabel we heard the enemy's 
artillery playing upon the little field work which 
we had left garrisoned by the Seventh Infantry and 
two companies of artillery. This bombardment 
was kept up for seven days, with a loss of but one 
killed and four or five wounded on our side. The 



40 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

loss of the enemy was much greater, though not 
serious. " 

On the 7th of May General Taylor left Point 
Isabel with a provision and ammunition train of 
two hundred and fifty wagons. The next day, 
within fourteen miles of Matamoros, they found 
the enemy drawn up for battle at the edge of a 
piece of woods known as Palo Alto, or "tall trees," 
near what is now the Texas border town of Browns- 
ville. 

The opening shots of the battle that followed — 
the future great general's first fight — were fired 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the firing 
continued until after sunset. 

"During the day's fight," the young lieutenant 
wrote to his parents at home, describing his sen- 
sations, "I scarcely thought of being touched my- 
self (although 9-pound shots were whistling all 
round), until near the close of the evening a shot 
struck the ranks a little ways in front of me. . . . 

"The next morning we found to our surprise 
that the last rear guard of the enemy was just 
leaving their ground, the main body having left 
during the night. From Palo Alto to Matamoros 
[near the northern border of Mexico] there is for a 
great part of the way a dense forest of undergrowth, 
here called chaparral. The Mexicans, after having 




Courtesy of the Century Company. 
Grant as a Young Officer in the Mexican War. 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 41 

marched a few miles through this, were reenforced 
by a considerable body of troops. They chose a 
place on the opposite side from us of a long but 
narrow pond (called Resaca de la Palma), which 
gave them greatly the advantage of position. Here 
they made a stand. The fight was a pellmell 
affair; everybody for himself. The chaparral is 
so dense that you may be within five feet of a per- 
son and not know it. Our troops rushed forward 
with shouts of victory, and would kill and drive 
away the Mexicans from every piece of artillery 
they could get their eyes on. The Mexicans stood 
this hot work for over two hours, but with a great 
loss. When they did retreat there was such a 
panic among them that they only thought of 
safety in flight. They made the best of their way 
for the river, and wherever they struck it they 
would rush in. Many of them no doubt were 
drowned. 

"Our losses in the two days were 182 killed and 
wounded. What the loss of the enemy was 
cannot be ascertained, but I know acres of ground 
were strewn with the bodies of the dead and 
wounded. I think it would not be an overesti- 
mate to say that their loss from killed, wounded, 
prisoners, and missing was over 2000. . . . 

"When we got into the camp of the enemy, 



42 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

everything showed the great confidence they had 
of success. They were actually cooking their 
meal during the fight, and as we have since learned, 
the women of Matamoros were making preparations 
for a great festival upon the return of their victori- 
ous army. ..." 

In August the expedition under General Taylor 
left Matamoros, following the Mexican bank of 
the Rio Grande toward Camargo, on the way to 
Monterey. The heat was so intense that the 
traveling was done during the night. Camargo 
was reached without incident. And here Lieu- 
tenant Grant was given new duties. He was 
made regimental quartermaster — the officer re- 
sponsible for the food, ammunition, and all other 
supplies of a regiment. It was a trying position 
for so young an officer, and showed the high opinion 
in which he was held by his seniors. 

The new duties Grant himself thus described : 
"Each day after the troop had started, the tents 
and cooking utensils had to be made into packages 
so they could be lashed to the backs of mules. 
Sheet-iron kettles and mess chests were inconven- 
ient articles to transport in that way. It took 
several hours to get ready to start each morning, 
and by the time we were ready, some of the mules 
first loaded would be tired of standing so long 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 43 

with their loads on their backs. Sometimes one 
would start to run, bowing his back and kicking 
up until he had scattered his load ; others would 
lie down and try to disarrange their loads by 
rolling on them." 

As can easily be understood, such experiences 
would be very trying to the temper. But never 
Once did Lieutenant Grant lose his head. Un- 
doubtedly it was this evenness of disposition that 
had brought him such an important position. He 
"made good." 

This is the more remarkable since the young 
quartermaster disliked his task. Regarding it he 
wrote to his parents: "I do not mean that you 
shall ever hear of my shirking my duty in battle. 
My new post of quartermaster is considered to 
afford an officer an opportunity to be relieved from 
fighting, but I do not and cannot see it in that 
light. You have always taught me that the post 
of danger is the post of duty." 

Leaving the Rio Grande at Camargo, the little 
army struck for the uplands, across sandy plains 
shimmering with heat. The men struggled bravely 
on, and at length gained the higher country, where 
the air was cooler, and finally arrived before the 
city of Monterey, which was about a hundred 
miles from Camargo. 



44 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Monterey was then a place of one-story adobe 
houses, and had a population of fifteen or twenty 
thousand. The people were a mixture of Indians 
and Spanish, and wore high conical hats and bright 
colored blankets, or serapes. The city was magnifi- 
cently located, with towering mountains on every 
side except to the northeast. General Taylor 
advanced from the east, and camped at a watering 
place in a grove of pecan and walnut trees three 
miles from the town. 

A level plain that lay between offered an easy 
approach for the American army, but overlooking 
the plain was a very strong fortress, encircled by a 
deep ditch. West of this fortress, called the Black 
Fort, because it was built of a black stone, was 
another strongly-built fortification known as the 
Bishop's Palace. On higher ground beyond the 
Palace were posted a large number of field guns. 

To defend this strong position the Mexican 
general had more than ten thousand men. General 
Taylor, however, did not hesitate to attack with 
his little army of three thousand. He sent officers 
forward, who returned and reported that the hill 
on which the Bishop's Palace stood could be 
stormed from the southwest. If the Palace could 
be taken, its guns could then be turned against 
the other forts, and against the town itself. 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 45 

General Taylor directed General Worth to lead 
his division and make the assault. The men 
went forward eagerly, in extended order, and 
quickly there was a crackling of rifles, then the 
crashing of guns. The American artillery was 
pushed forward into a ravine from which they 
could shell the Black Fort, and soon they were 
replying vigorously to the Mexican fire. 

Meantime, Lieutenant Grant, who as quarter- 
master had no business in the firing line, had been 
looking on from the rear. Finally he could stand 
it no longer, and, jumping upon a horse, dashed 
to the front on his own account. 
* Just as he arrived the infantry were ordered to 
charge for the Black Fort. Grant joined them, 
and urged his horse forward. At once the air 
seemed full of whistling bullets, from the fort 
and from the city housetops. Men began falling 
rapidly. The firing increased as they drew nearer, 
and more men fell. The line faltered. Seeing 
that his men could not reach the fort, the officer 
commanding swung the attack toward the city. 

Partly encircling the town at this point was a 
deep ravine. Crossing the ravine were several 
bridges. These were defended by strong forces 
of the enemy. The Americans charged, and were 
met by a terrific fire. Determinedly they held on, 



46 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

however, gained one of the bridges, and forced 
their way across. With the foremost went Lieu- 
tenant Grant, still on his horse. 

They were now in the city, but matters were 
worse. Every house was a fort, with the de- 
fenders firing from the windows and from behind 
sandbags piled on the flat roofs. 

In the center of the town was a plaza, or open 
square, containing the city buildings. Here was 
the main point of defense, and the attackers headed 
for it. The streets were swept by the guns located 
in the square. By quick rushes from corner to cor- 
ner, ten companies under Colonel Garland forced 
their way ahead, and reached the last barricade 
defending the square. Here they were brought 
to a standstill. Because of the hail of fire they 
could neither press on nor withdraw. To make 
matters worse, their ammunition began to give out. 

It became necessary to send back word of their 
situation. Colonel Garland called for volunteers. 

"Men, I've got to send some one back to General 
Twiggs. It's a dangerous job, and I don't like to 
order any man to do it. Who'll volunteer?" 

Promptly Lieutenant Grant offered himself. 
"I've got a horse," he said. 

"You're just the man to do it. Keep on the 
side streets, and ride hard," directed the colonel. 



IN THE MEXICAN WAR 47 

Grant's ability as a rider now stood him in good 
stead. Like an Indian of the plains, he swung 
sideways from his saddle, and, with one heel 
behind the cantle and one hand in his horse's 
mane, hanging out of sight, he dashed at full 
speed down a cross street. At every corner a 
volley was directed at him from the plaza. But 
he flashed by too quickly for effective aim, swung 
down a lane, went over a four-foot wall at a leap, 
and finally raced out of the zone of fire. Regaining 
his seat, he dashed on at headlong speed, and a few 
minutes later drew up before General Twiggs with 
his message. 

At nightfall the fighting ceased, to be resumed at 
daylight. For a time the Mexicans continued 
to defend their positions stoutly, but at last gave 
up the struggle, and surrendered. 

Lieutenant Grant's ride for ammunition was 
one of the most talked of episodes of the battle. 
His modest, "I've got a horse," did not divert 
praise from where it belonged. 



CHAPTER VI 
Exploits in Mexico 

After the capture of Monterey there was a 
lull in the war for about six months, at the end 
of which time General Winfield Scott, the com- 
mander in chief of the United States Army, was 
sent to take personal charge of the campaign in 
Mexico. General Scott arrived at the mouth of 
the Rio Grande late in December, 1846, and issued 
an order withdrawing all the regular troops from 
General Taylor's command, leaving only the volun- 
teers. His purpose was to invade Mexico by way 
of Vera Cruz, a coast city far to the south. 

With other regular regiments, the Fourth In- 
fantry was brought back from Monterey, and with 
it Acting Quartermaster Grant. 

For several weeks the army camped on the sand 
beach at the mouth of the Rio Grande, waiting for 
transports. When the vessels came, they proved to 
be sailing freighters, with very little accommodation 
for passengers. In consequence the voyage south- 
ward across the Gulf of Mexico was most tedious. 

48 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 49 

The first destination of the fleet was not Vera 
Cruz itself, but the harbor of Anton Lizador, six- 
teen miles south. It was the 9th of March, 1847, 
when the army of ten thousand men landed at a 
point three miles from the city. 

At that time Vera Cruz was entirely surrounded 
on the land side by a wall. Along the wall at 
intervals were fortifications. On an island in the 
harbor, facing the city a half mile away, was a 
fortress of great strength, San Juan de Ulloa. 

Altogether, the city was strongly defended ; and 
the invading army made their camp well out of 
range of its guns. During the night their artillery 
was moved forward, and early in the morning began 
the bombardment. There was no infantry fighting. 
The cannonade lasted until the 27th of March, 
when a considerable breach was made in the walls. 
The Mexicans decided not to wait for an assault. 
The governor sent out a flag of truce, and on the 
29th the Americans marched in and took possession. 

Five thousand prisoners of war were taken, 
four hundred pieces of artillery, and large quantities 
of small arms and ammunition. 

During the siege Lieutenant Grant continued at 
his duties as quartermaster, but at every oppor- 
tunity he made his way to the artillery firing line, 
to watch operations. 



50 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Vera Cruz was a most unhealthy city in 1847, 
and as the yellow fever season was approaching, 
General Scott determined to move on for Mexico 
City without delay. The first division of the army 
left on April 8, heading west for Jalapa. General 
Worth's division, to which Lieutenant Grant's 
regiment belonged, followed five days later. 

The first division, under General Twiggs, en- 
countered the enemy in force under the Mexican 
president, Santa Anna, at Cerro Gordo, fifteen 
miles east of Jalapa. 

The Mexican position was a strong one. It 
commanded a spur of mountains through which the 
road from Vera Cruz turned and twisted, with a 
sheer wall of rock on one side, and a deep chasm 
on the other. At every bend cannon had been 
placed and barricades erected. 

A direct attack was out of the question, and 
General Scott sought a way of making a flank 
attack. He sent out several reconnoitering parties. 
It is interesting to note that among the young 
officers in charge of the scouting parties were Cap- 
tain Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant George B. 
McClellan, who later were to play such important 
roles on opposite sides of a greater struggle. 

The scouting parties decided that it would be 
possible to cut a path down one wall of a certain 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 51 

ravine and up the other, and thus reach a point 
looking down on the rear of the enemy's position. 
The cutting of the path proved difficult and 
dangerous work, particularly as it had to be carried 
on only at night. But in the end it was accom- 
plished, and General Scott gave the order for the 
attack. At the same time he directed General 
Pillow to attack at another point, to draw the 
enemy's attention. 

The engineers who had made the path led the 
way, and the troops followed. The artillery was 
lowered into the ravine by ropes, and hoisted 
up the opposite wall in the same manner. 

Without alarming the unsuspecting enemy, the 
attacking party gained the opposite height, and 
made their way to the point aimed at, which was 
behind the Mexican lines. They opened fire. 
The surprise was complete. In a wild panic the 
Mexican reserve force behind the breastworks 
fled, and those defending the barricades threw 
down their arms and surrendered. The total num- 
ber to give themselves up was three thousand. 
Besides the prisoners, a large number of cannon, 
small arms, and stores were taken. 

One prize created much amusement — the Mexi- 
can president's wooden leg. It was found in his car- 
riage, together with a considerable sum of money. 



52 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

With the main Mexican army thus disposed of, 
the Americans pushed on, and occupied Jalapa. 
This town is described as one of the most beautiful 
in Mexico, with an unusually pleasant climate, 
because of its altitude. The invading army was 
glad to rest here for several weeks ; then it moved 
to the southwest, and occupied Puebla, the second 
largest city in the country, without opposition. 

From Puebla the march westward continued, 
and in August the invaders passed the last mountain 
barrier and looked down on a magnificent green 
plain, dotted with lakes and villages, and in its 
midst the beautiful City of Mexico. 

At a little Indian village on the shore of Lake 
Chalco, General Scott established his troops and 
began to reconnoiter. Two Americans who had 
lived in the City of Mexico offered themselves as 
guides. These guides explained the defenses of 
the city. It was entirely surrounded by dikes 
and ditches; at certain points were bridges and 
gates, defended by fortifications. 

After considering the situation, General Scott 
decided to move around the southern shores of the 
intervening lakes, and attack the city from the rear. 
A roadway encircled Lake Chalco, close to the moun- 
tains. The army followed this road, and reached a 
little Indian town about ten miles from the city. 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 53 

West of this village was an old lava bed, so rough 
and overgrown with cactus that the Mexicans 
believed no one could pass through it. The Ameri- 
can engineers soon found a way across, however, 
and early one morning the troops appeared before 
the town of Contreras, ten or twelve miles from the 
City of Mexico, on the opposite side. The Mexican 
defenders fled in terror at the unexpectedness of 
the attack, and retreated to the defenses of the 
city. 

The next outlying stronghold of the city defenses 
was the church and convent of Churubusco, which 
had been turned into forts. The church building, 
surrounded by a high wall, looked strong enough 
to withstand a siege. But, at the word from their 
officers, the Americans dashed forward across an 
open field, scrambled over the outer earthworks, 
silenced the cannon, and with ladders poured over 
the wall. 

So impetuous were the American attacks that 
the Mexicans became demoralized; and had 
General Scott understood the situation, he could 
have pressed on and occupied Mexico City itself 
at once. 

Lieutenant Grant, meanwhile, was with another 
division of the army which had occupied Tacubaya, 
a little Indian village on the edge of the high ground 



54 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

about four miles from the city. Here a rocky, 
wooded point of the plateau extended into the flat 
lands, and ended in a high, rocky knob. On this 
knob, which formed a strong natural fortress, 
towered the fortified castle of Chapultepec. The 
castle, which was a long, low, thick-walled struc- 
ture, covered most of the knoll. On the sides and 
at the base were other supporting fortifications, 
and a great stone aqueduct, whose archways had 
been built in to make a solid wall. 

Behind the fortress, within the wall formed by 
the aqueduct, was an old mill — the Molino del 
Rey — which was used as a cannon foundry. It 
was a square building with a wide wall surrounding 
it. This wall was so thick that sheds and houses 
were built into it. 

The whole — the castle, the mill, and the aque- 
duct — formed the strongest fortress held by the 
Mexicans. 

On the night of September 7 General Worth, 
who was in command of the division, moved his 
men as near the mill as possible, and at daybreak 
a charge was made. The righting was brief, 
but desperate. The mill was taken, lost, and re- 
taken several times before it was finally held by 
the Americans. 

Grant again managed to get into the thick of the 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 55 

fighting. He was one of the first to force his way 
within the walls surrounding the mill. Most of 
the Mexicans were fleeing, but on the roof of the 
mill Grant noticed several of the enemy still 
firing. Seeing no stairway or ladder to the roof, 
he called some soldiers to help, and dragged a 
heavy, two-wheeled cart to the side of the building. 
They raised the shafts against the wall, chocked 
the wheels so that the cart would not roll back, 
and scrambled up the narrow shafts as if they were 
ladders. 

The young officer's description of what followed 
is characteristic of his honesty in giving credit to 
others : — 

"I climbed to the roof of the building, followed 
by a few of the men, but found a private soldier 
had preceded me by some other way. There were 
still quite a number of Mexicans on the roof, among 
them a major and five or six officers of lower grades, 
who had not succeeded in getting away before our 
troops occupied the building. They still had their 
arms, while the soldier before mentioned was 
walking as sentry, guarding the prisoners he had 
surrounded all by himself. " 

Another incident of the fight was related by 
Captain Longstreet : — 

"His [Grant's] friend Dent was shot, and es- 



56 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

caped being killed by Grant's intervention. While 
pursuing the Mexicans, who were crowding into 
the mill for safety, he stumbled over his friend, who 
was lying on the floor with a wound in the thigh. 
Just as he was stooping to examine Dent's wound, 
Grant came face to face with a Mexican with 
musket raised to fire. The Mexican wheeled to 
escape, and seeing Lieutenant Thorn standing be- 
tween him and the door, was about to fire when 
Grant shouted a warning. The Mexican was killed 
by Thorn ; then all the squad rushed through into 
the enclosure of the mill, hot on the track of the 
fleeing Mexicans. The charge had been so im- 
petuous that those who were behind the parapets 
on the roof of the mill could not escape. They 
were treed like wildcats on the walls. Grant was 
everywhere on the field. He was always cool, 
swift, and unhurried in battle. He was as uncon- 
cerned apparently as if it were a hailstorm instead 
of a storm of bullets. I had occasion to observe 
his superb courage under fire. So remarkable was 
his bravery that mention was made of it in the 
official reports, and I heard his colonel say, ' There 
goes a man of fire.'" 

The capture of the mill proved only a temporary 
success. The cannon on the castle of Chapultepec 
got the range, and poured so heavy a fire into the 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 57 

mill that the captors were compelled to withdraw. 
Volunteers were then called for to make an attack 
on the castle itself. 

This was a desperate undertaking. It seemed 
that the fortress, in the hands of a few determined 
men, should have held out against an army of 
thousands. It loomed high over the defenses at its 
base, and cannon projected grimly from its parapets 
and from openings down the face of the walls. 
Yet volunteers came forward readily, and two 
columns of two hundred and fifty men each were 
formed. 

At the word, one party dashed forward, and 
proceeded coolly to dig its way through the built-in 
archways of the old aqueduct. They got through, 
and with a cheer started for the inner defenses. 
The second party made for the south side of the 
castle. Disregarding the murderous fire poured 
down upon them, they gained and scrambled over 
the outer earthworks and ditches, clambering up 
the walls in the very face of the cannon. Nothing 
could stop them, and the defenders of the castle 
gave up the fight and fled wildly. 

The main body of the attacking force now took 
up the pursuit and followed the fleeing Mexicans 
toward Mexico City. 

Lieutenant Grant, who as usual had been in 



58 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

the midst of the fighting, joined the most advanced 
party, pushing north along a road which followed 
the aqueduct toward the San Cosme gate. Beyond 
the castle the arches of the aqueduct had not been 
built in. The Americans took advantage of this, 
and dashed forward from one archway to another. 
The resistance offered was not serious until they 
drew near a point at which the aqueduct took an 
abrupt turn, following a road that ran eastward 
toward the city. Here they were met by artillery 
fire from an earthwork at the crossing of the two 
roads, and by rifle fire from the tops of houses be- 
yond. The fire was so heavy that the little ad- 
vance party was brought to a halt, and had to seek 
shelter in an arch. 

Not far away, at the southwest corner of the 
crossroads, was a house surrounded by a stone 
wall. Lieutenant Grant determined to reconnoiter 
in that direction. When a lull came in the firing, 
he dashed across the road and got under cover of 
the wall. He passed along to its southwestern 
corner and peeped about. No one was in sight. 
He crept on along the wall to the northern corner, 
and again looked about cautiously, this time 
straight down the road to the east. He could see 
directly behind the earthwork at the crossroad 
from which the cannon was firing. 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 59 

Grant lost no time in hastening back to his com- 
panions and calling for volunteers. A dozen re- 
sponded. He ordered the remainder to keep up a 
sharp fire on every head showing above the earth- 
work. The volunteers made a dash across the 
road and gained the stone wall. 

Before the party had reached the point it was 
heading for, they were joined by a second detach- 
ment of men who had been making their way along 
a near-by ditch. Grant explained his purpose to 
the officer in command of this detachment, and the 
officer, although his senior in rank, told him to 
proceed and to lead the way. 

Grant did so, and a few minutes later the whole 
party suddenly sprang into the road north of the 
wall and opened fire on the enemy at the cross- 
roads. With cries of surprise and fright the Mexi- 
cans retreated precipitately, leaving their cannon. 
The men on the housetops beyond followed. 
The attacking party, joined by the men from the 
arches, pursued the enemy so closely that they 
captured a second earthwork farther along the 
road before the Mexicans could rally. 

Later in the day Lieutenant Grant carried out 
an even more daring and successful feat. Re- 
connoitering to the south of the San Cosme road, 
he discovered a church, the belfry of which, it 



60 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

seemed to him, would command the San Cosme 
gate into the city. He returned and secured a 
small mountain howitzer and a number of men, 
and started again for the church. For easier 
carrying, the gun was taken to pieces. 

The San Cosme road itself being still in posses- 
sion of the enemy, the little squad of Americans 
had to take to the fields to reach their destination. 
This took them over several ditches breast-deep 
with water and filled with a thick growth of tropi- 
cal water plants. They struggled through without 
mishap and arrived at the church. 

With difficulty the gun was carried up into 
the belfry. There it was put together. When 
all was ready, it was trained through a belfry 
window and the gunners opened fire on the houses 
beyond the San Cosme gate. The Mexicans were 
dumbfounded, and the attack from the strange 
and lofty fortress soon began to tell on their 
resistance. 

General Worth, who witnessed the exploit, was 
so gratified that he sent for Lieutenant Grant and 
complimented him. 

And the City of Mexico surrendered that night. 
In the morning the United States troops entered 
and took possession, and the Mexican War was 
virtually at an end. 



EXPLOITS IN MEXICO 61 

In later years, when writing of the Mexican 
campaign, General Grant's generosity and fairness 
toward his opponents is shown by his words of 
praise for the Mexican soldier: "The private 
soldier was picked from the lower class of the in- 
habitants," he wrote ; "his consent was not asked ; 
he was poorly clothed, worse fed, and seldom paid. 
. . . With all this, I have seen as brave stands 
made by some of these men as I have ever seen 
made by soldiers." 



CHAPTER VII 

Out of the Army 

The war over, Quartermaster Grant, now a 
brevet captain, returned to New Orleans with his 
regiment. Shortly after the regiment was ordered 
north to posts on the Great Lakes, but Captain 
Grant procured a leave of absence, and set out on a 
much more important mission. 

Before leaving for Mexico he had secured the 
promise of Miss Julia Dent to become his wife. 
He now asked her to keep her word, and they were 
married quietly in St. Louis, on the 2 2d of August, 
1848. 

The honeymoon was spent at the Grant home in 
Bethel and in visiting friends and relatives in 
Georgetown, Bantam, and other places. Every- 
where the young "veteran" was made much of, 
particularly in the home of his boyhood, George- 
town. There the people who had called him 
" Useless," and who had declared he would never 
amount to anything, were the first to acclaim 
him a hero. 

62 



OUT OF THE ARMY 63 

The happy furlough passed quickly, and in 
November the young officer took his bride with 
him and joined his regiment at Detroit. He was 
still regimental quartermaster. This fact should 
have held him at Detroit, but presently, through 
some favoritism or jealousy, he was ordered by 
his commander to the small, lonesome post at 
Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario. 

Again Grant's evenness of disposition showed 
itself. Instead of becoming morose and disagree- 
able because of his unfair treatment, he bore him- 
self in a way that quickly made an agreeable im- 
pression on the men under him. In later years 
he was remembered by one of them as a "mild 
spoken man who always asked his men to do their 
duty, and never ordered them in an offensive way." 
"He was very sociable — always talked to a man 
freely and without putting on the airs of a superior 
officer," said another. At the same time he was a 
strict disciplinarian. 

At that time Grant wore his hair rather long, 
but had shaved the beard he had allowed to grow 
during the campaign in Mexico. 

"He lived very modestly — he couldn't afford 
to do anything else on his pay — but his wife made 
his quarters cozy and homelike. His only dissi- 
pation was in owning a fast horse. He still had a 



64 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

passion for horses, and was willing to pay a high 
price to get a fine one." 

During the monotonous life at Sackett's Harbor 
Grant became an expert checker-player. It is 
related that he occasionally rode over to Water- 
town, ten miles away, to meet the local checker 
champion, a shoemaker. The two arranged a 
series of games, and it was agreed, it is said, that in 
the event of a draw the victory would be decided 
by a footrace. The contest proved a tie, and con- 
sequently Captain Grant and the shoemaker ran 
a race. Grant won easily, without removing the 
long riding-duster he wore. 

In the spring Grant was returned to his proper 
post at Detroit, thanks to the intervention of his 
former commander in Mexico, General Scott. The 
succeeding three years passed uneventfully, save 
for the arrival to Captain and Mrs. Grant of a little 
son, whom they called Frederick Dent Grant. In 
the spring of 1852 the Fourth Infantry was ordered 
to the Pacific coast. The Grants decided that it 
would be unwise for Mrs. Grant and her little 
son to make the long and fatiguing journey, and 
accordingly the young officer sorrowfully left his 
wife behind with his father and mother, at Bethel, 
Ohio. In April the regiment was assembled at 
Governor's Island, in New York Harbor ; on the 






OUT OF THE ARMY 65 

5th of July it sailed aboard the steamship Ohio for 
the Isthmus of Panama. 

The troops landed at Aspinwall — now Colon — 
to cross the Isthmus there and take ship again on 
the Pacific side. 

And now came a supreme test of Grant's patience 
and general resourcefulness as quartermaster. 
Upon him fell the responsibility of moving the 
troops, their wives and families, and the baggage 
and regimental equipment. 

To begin with, the rainy season was at its 
height. The streets of Aspinwall were eight or 
ten inches under water, and rain was falling heavily 
every day, except for intervals when the sun 
broke through with blazing heat. Worse yet, 
cholera had appeared. 

Grant " wondered how any person could live 
many months in Aspinwall, and wondered still 
more why any one tried. " 

The Panama Railroad had been completed only 
as far as the Chagres River. From that point 
passengers were taken by boats poled slowly up 
the river by natives to Gorgona. From Gorgona 
they traveled by mules the remainder of the dis- 
tance to Panama, about twenty-five miles. 

Hastening matters as much as possible, Grant 
succeeded in getting the troops away from Aspin- 



66 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

wall and as far as Gorgona. Here his real difficul- 
ties began. The mules which had been contracted 
for were not on hand, and the agent who was to 
provide them declared that they were not to be 
had. A consultation was held, and it was decided 
to march the troops the remainder of the distance, 
with the exception of one company, which should 
remain to assist with the baggage. 

The regiment departed, and Grant was left 
with the one company, the soldiers with families, 
and the tents and other equipment. He began 
searching for the necessary mules on his own ac- 
count. 

Before he had succeeded, cholera appeared among 
the soldiers left with him. Grant determined to 
allow those who were still able to follow the re- 
mainder of the regiment at once, on foot, to remove 
them from danger. The doctors went with them, 
and the young quartermaster was left entirely 
alone with the sick and dying among the soldiers 
and their families. 

It was a week later when Grant's continued 
efforts resulted in locating mules among the 
natives. With this aid the party at last started 
for Panama; but by the time they reached 
the Pacific one third of their number had suc- 
cumbed to the dread disease. 



OUT OF THE ARMY 67 

At Panama Grant learned that the cholera had 
broken out among the troops who had preceded 
him, and who had boarded the waiting troop-ship. 
An ordinary man would have been utterly dis- 
couraged. Our young quartermaster, however, 
tackled his new difficulties with the same patience 
and courage that he had previously shown. 

Besides the ordinary provisions, it was now his 
duty to provide all the necessary hospital facilities 
and medicines. For a time there were twelve or 
fifteen deaths daily, and fifty or sixty dangerously 
sick patients crowding the limited quarters of the 
plague-stricken vessel. 

" Grant seemed to be a man of iron in endurance, 
seldom sleeping, and then only for two or three 
hours at a time," said a member of the regiment, 
later. "Yet his work was always done, and his 
supplies always ample, and at hand." He did 
more than merely fulfill his duties. "He seemed to 
take a personal interest in every sick man. He 
was like a ministering angel to us all." 

When the plague was at last checked, one hun- 
dred and fifty men, or one seventh of the regiment, 
had died. The troop-ship, the Golden Gate, then 
began its northward voyage, and arrived safely 
at San Francisco. A few weeks later the Fourth 
Infantry was in permanent quarters at Fort Van- 



68' ULYSSES S. GRANT 

couver, on the Columbia River, near the site of 
what is now Portland. 

After the harrowing experiences of the long 
journey from New York, life was very quiet and 
uneventful at the army post. There was no trouble 
with the Indians, and Brevet Captain Grant had 
only the routine of his duties as quartermaster to 
occupy him. 

To make use of the time on his hands, and also 
to add something to his modest salary, Grant went 
into a farming venture with a young brother officer, 
Lieutenant Wallen. The venture was first sug- 
gested by the fact that at Fort Vancouver potatoes 
were selling at eight and nine dollars a bushel. 

The partners rented a piece of ground from the 
Hudson Bay Company, plowed it, and planted and 
raised a fine crop. With visions of a snug for- 
tune, they set about looking for a market, and 
discovered that every one else had raised potatoes ! 
Instead of being worth eight or nine dollars a 
bushel, the crop could not be sold at any price. 
Indeed, the partners lost money by the venture; 
for they finally had to pay a farmer for hauling 
the potatoes away, to prevent them decaying. 

During the following winter word reached Fort 
Vancouver that ice was bringing a fabulous price in 
San Francisco. Grant and Wallen, with a third 



OUT OF THE ARMY 69 

partner, Lieutenant Ingalls, determined to supply 
the need, and profit accordingly. They cut a 
hundred tons of ice on the Columbia River, and 
chartered a brig to carry it to market. The vessel 
ran into several weeks of adverse winds, and by 
the time it arrived at San Francisco a large quantity 
of ice had been brought from Sitka, and the cargo 
could not be given away. 

When a third venture, in cattle buying, had no 
better result, the partners wisely decided that they 
had no gift for business, and gave it up. In any 
case the partnership would have ended that au- 
tumn, for in September Grant received his promo- 
tion to the full rank of captain, and was assigned 
to the command of F Company, at Fort Humboldt, 
two hundred and fifty miles north of San Francisco. 
The advancement was not the piece of good 
fortune it at first appeared. Seven months later 
it led to Captain Grant's retirement from the 
army. 

In after years various explanations were given 
for Grant's resignation. It was charged by his 
enemies that his retirement was due to intemper- 
ance. Unfortunately, there appears to have been 
just sufficient excuse to give such stories an ap- 
pearance of truth. But it is equally certain, if 
the stories did have some foundation, that Grant 



70 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

manfully and splendidly conquered a weakness 
that might have betrayed many young men under 
like discouraging circumstances. It is possible 
that our general's greatest battle and greatest 
victory have never been put into words. 

Grant's army friends did not accept these stories, 
however. The reasons they gave for his retirement 
were mental depression, due to the change from the 
pleasant surroundings at Fort Vancouver to the 
monotonous life of a small army post ; the longing 
for the company of his family, as his salary did 
not permit him to bring them to the coast ; and, last 
but not least, the unfriendliness and general petty 
tyranny of his new commanding officer. For this 
officer was the same Captain Buchanan who had 
shown such a hostile spirit toward Grant at the 
mess-table in St. Louis, shortly after he had joined 
the regiment. 

One of his old comrades, who met him after his 
resignation, thought Grant had acted hastily, in 
a moment of disgust, without giving the step 
proper consideration. 

" Grant," he said, " spoke of his longing for the 
quiet life of a farmer, and it was apparent to me 
that his boyhood ambition to be a tiller of the soil 
had returned. I never knew a man better than I 
knew Grant, and I never knew a better man." 



OUT OF THE ARMY 71 

It was in April, 1854, that Grant left the army. 
He made his way to New York, by way of the Isth- 
mus, and reached his father's home in Ohio practi- 
cally penniless. It was a sad home-coming. 

The years that immediately followed were no 
happier than their unfortunate beginning. His 
experience in the army seemingly had unfitted 
Grant for success in everyday life. Everything he 
attempted ended in disaster. 

First he tried farming, upon land near St. Louis 
which his wife had inherited. He cleared it, and 
built a log house, with the assistance of his neigh- 
bors. Because of the hard work it cost, he called 
the new home "Hardscrabble." Besides farming, 
he cut and hauled firewood for sale in the city. 

Next he tried selling real estate. At this also 
he failed, and in i860 he took a position as clerk 
under a younger brother, Simpson Grant, in a 
branch of his father's tanning business at Galena, 
Illinois. 

Colonel Nicholas Smith tells a story of Cap- 
tain Grant in Galena which shows that Grant's 
thoughtfulness for others had not been affected 
by his misfortunes. Colonel Smith was then an 
apprentice in a Galena harness-shop. 

"I had been in the shop but a short time, ,, he 
relates, "when one morning the foreman told me 



72 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

to go to Grant's and get some ' strap oil.' On enter- 
ing the store the only person I saw was a man wear- 
ing an army overcoat of blue, reading a paper. 
He asked what I wanted, and I answered that I 
had been sent for some strap oil. Instantly he 
grasped the meaning of this, and in a quiet, kindly 
way he replied, 'You may tell your foreman that 
the firm has no strap oil this morning.' This 
was a great disappointment to the harness-shop 
force." Of course they were waiting to see the 
young apprentice return much faster than he went. 
Another story shows that Captain Grant had 
retained his courage as well as his kindness. Like 
other firms, the Grants occasionally had difficulties 
with dishonest debtors. One such firm in Wiscon- 
sin had bought goods from them on credit and then 
disposed of the shipment by a false bill of sale. 
Captain Grant was sent to collect the bill or to 
recover the goods by law. Investigation proved 
the bill of sale to be fraudulent, and a writ was 
given a deputy sheriff, who, with an attorney and 
the captain, proceeded to the building in which 
the goods were stored. The pretended purchaser, 
having heard that one of the Grants was in town, 
armed himself with a gun, hastened to the store, 
locked the door, and waited for the coming of the 
officer. When the deputy arrived and attempted to 



OUT OF THE ARMY 73 

serve the papers, a threat to shoot came from 
within. The sheriff was at a loss what to do. 

"Mr. Deputy," suggested Captain Grant, "if 
you are afraid to force an entrance into the building, 
why not deputize some one who will do it for you ? " 

"Very well, I deputize you," replied the sheriff. 

Grant stepped back, and disregarding the re- 
peated threat of the man in the store, ran at the 
door and rammed it with his foot. With a crash it 
flew open. They entered, served the papers on the 
cowed defender, and recovered the goods. 

In speaking of these trying years we should not 
forget Grant's wife. Although brought up amid 
the comfortable surroundings of a Southern plan- 
tation, she found no fault with the disappointments 
and trials that followed Grant's return from the 
coast. Through years that must have been full 
of discouragement for her, she comforted and 
encouraged her husband, and performed faithfully 
and lovingly all her duties in the humble home he 
provided. These duties had not decreased, since 
their little family now consisted of three boys and 
a baby girl. 



CHAPTER VIII 
Early Days of the Civil War 

The excitement that affected the whole country 
previous to the outbreak of the Civil War did not 
miss Galena. 

A few days after the firing on Fort Sumter a 
packed, excited meeting was held in the court- 
house, and heated speeches were delivered. Cap- 
tain Grant was present, but no move was made 
to enlist volunteers for the expected struggle, 
and he took no part. He was a man of action 
and not of words. 

Two days later a second meeting was held, and 
Captain Grant was called to act as chairman. 
He was surprised, and advanced to the platform 
hesitatingly. He is described as being at that 
time a "shortish man, slightly stooping, carrying 
his head a little to one side." He wore a closely 
trimmed beard, light brown in color. 

A speech was called for. Grant greatly disliked 
public speaking, but responded briefly. As always, 
what he had to say was directly to the point : — ■ 

74 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR 75 

"Fellow-citizens, this meeting is called to or- 
ganize a company of volunteers to serve the state 
of Illinois. Before calling upon you to become 
volunteers, I wish to state just what will be re- 
quired of you. First of all, unquestioning obe- 
dience to your superior officers. The army is not 
a picnicking party, nor is it an excursion. You 
will have hard fare. You may be obliged to sleep 
on the ground after long marches in the rain and 
snow. Many of the orders of your superiors 
will seem to you unjust, and yet they must be 
borne. If an injustice is really done you, how- 
ever, there are courts-martial where your wrongs 
can be investigated and offenders punished. If 
you put your name down here, it should be in 
full understanding of what the act means. In 
conclusion, let me say that so far as I can I will 
aid the company, and I intend to reenlist in the 
service myself." 

Recruiting began immediately. When the com- 
pany was completed the command of it was offered 
to Captain Grant. He declined. With all his 
practical military experience, he felt he could be 
used in a higher rank, when so few experienced 
military men were available. His sole idea was 
to be useful. 

When the Galena company departed for Spring- 



76 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

field, Grant went with them, bearing a letter of 
introduction to Governor Yates. 

Springfield, the state capital, was full of people 
and excitement. In response to President Lin- 
coln's call for volunteers, troops were pouring in, 
and all was buzz and activity. Governor Yates's 
office was crowded when Captain Grant made 
his way there. After waiting for several hours 
he was received, and offered his services in any 
capacity. To his surprise and disappointment 
the governor replied shortly, "I'm sorry to say, 
Captain, there is nothing for you to do. Call 
again." 

Unfortunately for him, Captain Grant, "rather 
small and a little stooped," did not give the im- 
pression of being a capable military man. Also, 
his modesty prevented him from referring to his 
experience in the regular army. The chief reason 
for his being abruptly turned away, however, was 
the fact that he had no strong political friends; 
for at that time practically all military appoint- 
ments were made through political influence. 

Captain Grant took his meals at the Chenery 
House. There he began to make a few acquaint- 
ances. Through the natural discussion of mili- 
tary topics he soon impressed a number of these 
acquaintances with his sound knowledge of mili- 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR 77 

tary matters. However, nothing transpired, and 
he determined to return to Galena. 

Governor Yates took his meals at the same 
hotel. He had observed Grant's bearing in his 
conversations with the other guests, and had been 
impressed by it. The evening Grant had decided 
to leave, the governor encountered him on the 
hotel steps. 

" Captain Grant," said the governor, "I under- 
stand you are going to leave." 

"That is my intention," Grant replied. 

"I wish you would remain over night, and call 
at my office in the morning," requested the gover- 
nor. 

With high hopes Grant did as requested, and 
in the morning presented himself at the governor's 
office. Instead of the command of a regiment, 
he was offered a clerk's desk in the office of the 
adjutant general, at a salary of two dollars a day. 

Most men would have refused the position in- 
dignantly. Captain Grant accepted it, and sought 
to make himself as useful as possible. At first 
he was given the simplest work to do ; but despite 
his modesty, his thorough knowledge of military 
affairs was evident, and soon he became the general 
adviser of the whole office. 

The ability thus displayed again attracted the 



7 8 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

attention of Governor Yates, and Captain Grant 
was taken from the adjutant's office and made 
drillmaster at two adjacent mobilization camps. 
During the temporary absence of General Pope 
he was made commander at Fort Yates. The 
next step was an appointment as mustering of- 
ficer, and he was sent to several distant points to 
muster in new regiments. 

On one of these trips he went to Mattoon and 
mustered in the regiment from the Seventh Con- 
gressional District. This regiment was recruited 
from the farms, shops, and offices of the district, 
and at the time of its mustering it was commanded 
by " Colonel" Simon S. Goode. Goode had 
joined the regiment as captain of a company 
from Decatur, and had been elected colonel be- 
cause of his fine, soldierly bearing. He was tall, 
straight, and commanding in appearance, and 
wore a gray flannel shirt, a broad hat, and high 
boots. In his belt he carried a huge bowie knife 
and three revolvers. Unfortunately, however, his 
bearing and dress were his only qualifications as 
an officer. 

It was this regiment that Grant was later given 
to command. By that time, under the leader- 
ship of Goode, it had become completely dis- 
organized. The more unruly of the soldiers had 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR 79 

terrorized the whole surrounding country by their 
foraging and drinking. 

The battalion was ordered to Fort Yates, at 
Springfield, and here Colonel Grant was directed 
to take command. 

Some ceremony was made of the occasion. 
On arriving at the camp in the company of Con- 
gressman John A. McClernand and John A. 
Logan, Colonel Grant found the regiment as- 
sembled to receive him, and to listen to speeches. 

For two hours the two congressmen spoke 
fervently and brilliantly. At the conclusion of 
his stirring address, Congressman Logan, a tall, 
fine-looking man, turned and indicated Grant. 
" Allow me to present to you your new com- 
mander," he said dramatically, " Colonel U. S. 
Grant." 

As the new colonel came forward quietly from 
the rear of the platform, the soldiers were visibly 
astonished and disappointed. Beside the man 
who had introduced him he was almost insignif- 
icant. But some of them shouted for a speech. 

Grant drew a step nearer, and in a voice not 
loud, but clear and resolute, said, 

"Men, go to your quarters!" 

Nothing could have been more effective. The 
five simple words told the unruly regiment that 



80 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

their new colonel was a man who would command, 
and who knew his business. 

They had a few more words from him that 
evening. It had been the custom of the previous 
colonel, after each day's evening parade, to deliver 
a grandiloquent address. The speech usually 
ended with this dramatic appeal : — 

"I know that this regiment, men and officers 
alike, would march with me to the cannon's mouth ! 
But to renew and verify that pledge, the regiment 
will move forward two paces!" 

Colonel Grant said, "A soldier's first duty is 
to learn to obey his commander. I shall expect 
my orders to be obeyed as exactly and instantly 
as if we were on the field of battle." 

The majority of the men of the regiment welcomed 
their new commander gladly. With a number of 
them Colonel Grant had some difficulty, partic- 
ularly with certain men who objected to his order 
stopping all drinking. He came on the scene when 
one of the most unruly of these characters, a big, 
powerful man, was creating a disturbance. 

"What is the matter?" he asked. 

"This man persists in bringing liquor into 
camp, and refuses to give it up." 

"Put him in the guardhouse." 

"He resists arrest." 



EARLY DAYS OF THE CIVIL WAR 81 

The man struck a defiant attitude toward his 
commanding officer. Grant strode toward him. 
The look in his eyes halted the bully. Grant 
seized him by the collar, swung him about, and 
before the trouble-maker had collected his wits, 
hustled him to the gate and out into the road. 

"Get out of my regiment," said the colonel. 
"I don't want you in it. You're not worth dis- 
ciplining. If you come back, I'll have you shot !" 

At one time there were nearly a score of men 
tied up for leaving camp against orders, and for 
drunkenness and disorder. Among them was 
a dangerous man called "Mexico," who cursed 
his commander, and said, "For every minute I 
stand here I'll have an ounce of your blood!" 

"Gag that man," said Grant quietly. 

When the man had been punished sufficiently, 
Grant, to show him how little he feared him, 
went and released him himself. 

This practically ended the new colonel's troubles 
with the regiment. The men progressed rapidly 
in their drill, and on the 3d of July, as the Twenty- 
first Illinois Volunteers, were ordered to the front, 
one of the first corps to be called from the state. 
By that time the men were proud of their com- 
mander, and declared they had the best colonel 
and the best regiment in the state. 



CHAPTER IX 

Preliminary Conflicts 

The first duty assigned Colonel Grant and 
his regiment was the uninteresting task of guard- 
ing a bridge over the Salt River in Missouri. 
Then came an order to move against a small 
force of Confederates under Colonel Thomas 
Harris which had taken possession of the little 
town of Florida, some twenty-five miles to the 
south. 

Colonel Grant's own account of this first ex- 
pedition is interesting. His confession of uneasi- 
ness is a fine example of truthfulness, and does 
not make us think less of him, or doubt his splendid 
courage. 

"While preparations for the move were going 
on," he wrote, "I felt quite comfortable; but 
when we got on the road, and found every house 
deserted I was anything but easy. In the twenty- 
five miles we had to march we did not see a person, 
except two horsemen, who . . . decamped as fast 
as their horses could carry them. I kept my men 

82 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 83 

in the ranks, and forbade their entering any of 
the deserted houses and taking anything from 
them. We halted at night on the road, and pro- 
ceeded the next morning at an early hour. Harris 
had been encamped in a creek bottom. . . . 
The hills on either side of the creek extended to 
a considerable height, possibly more than a hun- 
dred feet. As we approached the brow of the 
hill from which it was expected we could see 
Harris's camp, and possibly find his men ready 
formed to meet us, my heart kept getting higher 
and higher, until it felt to me as though it was 
in my throat. I would have given anything then 
to have been back in Illinois. . . . When we 
reached a point from which the valley below was 
fully in view, I halted. The place where Harris 
had been encamped a few days before was still 
there, and the marks of a recent encampment 
were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. 
My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me 
at once that Harris had been as much afraid of 
me as I had been of him. . . . From that event 
to the close of the war I never experienced trepida- 
tion upon confronting an enemy, though I always 
felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he 
had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his. 
The lesson was valuable." 



84 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Inquiry in the neighborhood showed that the 
Confederates had left several days before, and 
were already some forty miles away. Colonel 
Grant returned to his old camp at the Salt River 
bridge, and a short time after was ordered with 
his regiment farther south to the town of Mexico. 

Here Colonel Grant was given command of 
several additional regiments. One day, during 
his absence from headquarters, a telegram was 
received addressed to Brigadier General Grant! 
It was the first word of his further promotion. 
When he returned to camp he found his own 
regiment, the Twenty-first, lined up to receive 
him. Their cheer for "General Grant" first 
told him of his new rank. 

Shortly following his promotion, General Grant 
was given command over a district embracing 
southern Illinois and southeastern Missouri. On 
the 4th of September he set up his headquarters 
at Cairo, at the extreme southern point of Illinois. 
The post at Cairo was in charge of Colonel Richard 
Oglesby, later governor of Illinois. 

When General Grant arrived at Cairo, his 
brigadier general's uniform had not yet been 
received, and he was in everyday dress. At the 
headquarters he found the rooms full of people. 
Colonel Oglesby, who was in full uniform, thought 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 85 

him some country stranger with a favor to ask 
and paid little attention to him. Grant quietly 
took a place at the table, reached for a piece of 
paper, and wrote on it an order assuming com- 
mand of the district. Needless to say, Colonel 
Oglesby was astonished and apologized profusely. 
General Grant at once began to show the energy 
which characterized him throughout the war. On 
the day after he assumed command at Cairo one 
of General Fremont's scouts came in and reported 
that a force of Confederates had left Columbus, 
on the Mississippi twenty miles below Cairo, and 
were marching northeast on Paducah, at the 
junction of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. Gen- 
eral Grant saw that the holding of Paducah by 
the enemy would be a serious blow to the Union 
cause in Kentucky, and that action to prevent 
it must be taken quickly. He telegraphed to 
General Fremont at St. Louis, but receiving no 
reply, he determined to act at once on his own 
responsibility. There were a large number of 
steamers lying in the river at Cairo. General 
Grant took possession of them, ordered steam 
up, and during the early part of the night sent 
his troops aboard. The boats started down- 
stream at midnight, and by early morning were 
before Paducah. The troops landed and found 



86 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

that the enemy had not yet appeared. They had 
won the race ! 

Had General Grant waited a few hours longer, 
Paducah would have been occupied and fortified 
by the Confederates, probably with far-reaching 
results for the Union cause. 

A proclamation which General Grant issued to 
the people of Paducah was perhaps of as much 
importance as the occupation of the city. The 
attitude of the state of Kentucky had been a 
source of great anxiety to the people of the North. 
General Grant's simple and dignified announce- 
ment helped greatly to turn the sentiment to 
the side of the Union. It also brought Grant 
to the attention of President Lincoln. 

"The man who can write like that," declared 
the President, after reading Grant's proclamation, 
"is fitted to command in the West." 

The proclamation read as follows : 

TO THE CITIZENS OF PADUCAH: 

J have come among you, not as an enemy, but 
as your friend and fellow-citizen, not to injure 
or annoy you, but to respect the rights and defend 
and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens. An 
enemy in rebellion against our common government 
has taken possession of and planted its guns upon 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 87 

the soil of Kentucky, and fired upon our flag. Hick- 
man and Columbus are in his hands; he is moving 
upon your city. I am here to defend you against 
this enemy, and to assert and maintain the authority 
and sovereignty of your government and mine. I 
have nothing to do with opinions. I deal only with 
armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors. You 
can pursue your usual avocations without fear or 
hindrance. The strong arm of the government is 
here to protect its friends and to punish only its 
enemies. Whenever it is manifest that you are 
able to defend yourselves, to maintain the authority 
of your government, and protect the rights of all its 
loyal citizens, I shall withdraw the forces under my 
command from your city. 

U. S. Grant. 

Nothing of importance occurred for two months 
after the occupation of Paducah by the Union 
forces. General Grant, whose command had been 
reenforced to 20,000 men, several times asked 
General Fremont for permission to continue the 
campaign by driving the Confederates out of 
Columbus. General Fremont refused, and him- 
self took the field in the latter part of October 
against General Price and a Confederate army 
in Missouri. General Grant was then ordered 






88 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

to make a demonstration along the Mississippi 
River, in order to prevent the Confederates in 
Columbus from sending reinforcements to aid 
Price. This order brought about General Grant's 
first battle. 

Part of his troops, under General Smith, Grant 
sent toward Columbus, to threaten that city 
from the rear. With three thousand men, two 
squadrons of cavalry, and two guns, he himself 
started down the river from Cairo by boat. He 
did not intend to attack Columbus, but merely 
to make a feint of doing so; for the enemy was 
there in force, and had strongly fortified the 
town. 

The expedition left Cairo on the evening of 
November 6, 1861. Early the following morning 
General Grant learned that Confederate troops 
were crossing the river from Columbus, apparently 
to attack Colonel Oglesby, who had gone into 
Missouri with a small command after the bandit 
Jeff Thompson. General Grant knew there was 
a Confederate camp at Belmont, across the river 
from Columbus. He determined to attack and 
destroy this camp, in order to create a diversion 
and prevent the attack on Colonel Oglesby. 

About daylight the Union boats crept stealthily 
down the shore. They reached a point nearly a 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 89 

mile and a half from the camp, and the troops 
began debarking. The ground was low and 
marshy, and heavily timbered except for a few 
clearings. By eight o'clock all the men were 
ashore, and the move forward was begun. 

In the midst of a thick wood they were dis- 
covered by the enemy's skirmishers. At once 
the firing began. It grew hotter and hotter. 
The officers and men were under fire for the first 
time, but they behaved splendidly. Slowly the 
enemy was pushed back, almost from tree to tree, 
and after four hours of fierce fighting the Con- 
federates broke and ran. 

Then came an unfortunate incident which showed 
the danger of a lack of discipline. The Northern 
soldiers, pouring into the Confederate camp, 
dropped their rifles and began rummaging through 
the tents for trophies. In vain General Grant 
endeavored to regain control over them. They 
refused to listen to words of command. 

While this was going on, the Confederates 
driven from the camp lay crouched under cover 
of the river bank, ready to surrender when sum- 
moned to do so. Finding that they were not 
pursued, they began working their way up the 
river under cover, and came out on the bank 
between the attackers and their transports. 



go ULYSSES S. GRANT 

General Grant discovered the threatening situa- 
tion, and ordered one of his staff officers to fire 
the tents. When the smoke went up above the 
trees it at once drew a cannonade from the guns 
on the heights across the river at Columbus. The 
men were thrown into a panic, and there was a cry, 
"We are surrounded !" 

"We have cut our way in, and can cut our way 
out/' said General Grant. The confident remark 
brought officers and men to their senses, and they 
began an orderly retreat to the transports. The 
losses were heavy, but they gained the river and 
got aboard their boats. 

General Grant had a narrow escape in regaining 
his vessel. He was the last to arrive at the river, 
and the plank which had reached to the top of 
the steep bank had been pulled in. It was im- 
possible to restore it quickly. Without hesitation 
the general put his horse over the bank, and the 
animal slipped down to the water's edge on his 
haunches. The plank was thrown out and Gen- 
eral Grant rode aboard the boat. 

Although the Confederates regarded the battle 
of Belmont as a victory, since the Northern force 
had withdrawn, General Grant in reality accom- 
plished all he set out to do. The enemy were 
prevented from sending troops from Columbus 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 91 

to reenforce those opposed to General Fremont 
and Colonel Oglesby. They also suffered heavily 
in killed and wounded, and had many tents and 
much camp equipment destroyed. General Grant 
captured two cannon, spiked four, and made one 
hundred and seventy-five prisoners. His loss in 
killed, wounded, and missing was four hundred and 
eighty-five; that of the enemy was six hundred 
and forty- two. 

General Grant was a strict disciplinarian, but 
he also liked a joke. The following story shows 
how skillfully he could combine a joke and a repri- 
mand : — 

While he was still in Missouri he led an expedi- 
tion against Jeff Thompson in northeast Arkansas. 
His advance guard was under a certain Lieutenant 
Wickfield, of an Indiana cavalry regiment. About 
noon one day the lieutenant and his men came 
upon a small farmhouse. With two junior of- 
ficers, Wickfield entered the house and, assuming 
a commanding air, ordered something to eat "for 
himself and his staff." 

"Who are you?" asked the farmer's wife. 

"Brigadier General Grant," said the lieutenant. 

The best that the house afforded was spread on 
the table, and done full justice to. 

Some time later General Grant himself came 



92 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

within sight of the farm. Riding up to the fence 
in front of the house, he called the woman to the 
door, and asked if she would cook him a meal. 

"No," replied the woman gruffly. "General 
Grant and his staff have just been here, and eaten 
everything in the house except one pumpkin pie." 

"Humph !" commented General Grant. "What 
is your name?" 

"Selvidge," replied the woman. 

Grant drew a half dollar from his pocket and 
tossed it to her. "Kindly keep that pie until I 
send an officer for it," he requested. 

That evening, after the troops had gone into 
camp, the various regiments were notified that 
there would be a grand parade at 6.30 for orders. 
Such a parade was unusual, and all kinds of ex- 
citing rumors began flying about. 

The parade was formed, and the acting adjutant 
general in a loud voice read the following order : 

Headquarters, Army in the Field. 

Lieutenant Wickfield, of the Indiana cavalry, having on 

this day eaten everything in Mrs. Selvidge 's house, at the cross- 
ing of the Ironton and Pocahontas and Black river and Cape 
Girardeau road, except one pumpkin pie, Lieutenant Wick- 
field is hereby ordered to return with an escort of one hundred 

cavalry, and eat the pie also. 

U. S. Grant, 

Brigadier General Commanding. 



PRELIMINARY CONFLICTS 93 

At seven o'clock the crestfallen lieutenant passed 
out of the camp with his hundred men, to the 
cheers of the entire army, and returned to the 
farmhouse to do as directed. Needless to say he 
did not again pass himself off as " General Grant." 



CHAPTER X 
The Capture of Fort Donelson 

Two days after the battle of Belmont, Major 
General Halleck was appointed to succeed General 
Fremont, and General Grant's district was en- 
larged to take in the mouths of the Tennessee and 
Cumberland rivers. 

Up to this time little had been accomplished 
anywhere by the Union armies. Most of the 
higher generals appeared content to let matters 
drift along. General Grant, who was made of 
different stuff, became impatient. He visited 
General Halleck at St. Louis and asked permission 
to attack Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, im- 
portant points on the Tennessee and Cumberland 
rivers. General Halleck's reply to the request 
was a curt refusal. General Grant was much 
hurt. But he could not give up the idea of doing 
something. He consulted Flag Officer Foote, 
commander of a little fleet of Union gunboats 
in the river at Cairo. Foote agreed with Grant's 
plans, and Grant wrote to General Halleck, again 

94 



THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON 95 

asking permission to attack Fort Henry. This 
time he was successful, and Halleck told him to 
proceed with his plan. 

The expedition left Cairo on February 2, 1862. 
It consisted of 17,000 men aboard river boats, and 
seven gunboats. On February 6 the flotilla was 
before Fort Henry. The gunboats began the 
attack at once. So effective was their fire that 
in little more than an hour the fort ceased reply- 
ing, and surrendered. The infantry were not 
needed. 

General Grant did not rest with this success. 
He immediately prepared to attack Fort Donelson 
with its defending army of 21,000 men. To op- 
pose this force he had 15,000 men and the seven 
gunboats under Foote. 

The gunboats attacked as they had at Fort 
Henry. This time the Confederate batteries were 
too much for them. Practically every boat in 
the fleet was disabled, and Flag Officer Foote was 
severely injured. 

Meanwhile the troops ashore were having an 
uncomfortable time. The weather was bitterly 
cold, and the men were without tents. Many of 
them were without overcoats and blankets. Their 
belief that General Grant would lead them to 
success kept them up, however; and further 



9 6 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

encouragement came when they were joined by 
10,000 fresh troops, with a needed supply of 
ammunition. 

Early on Saturday morning, February 15, 
General Grant was returning from a call on the 
wounded commander of the gunboats when he 
was met by an excited messenger. The aide re- 
ported that the Confederates were making a heavy 
attack on General McClernand's division, on the 
right of the Union line. 

General Grant reached the scene about nine 
o'clock to find General McClernand's men waver- 
ing after an onslaught which had driven them 
back a considerable distance. As he rode along the 
lines he overheard one soldier saying to another, 
"They have come out to fight all day. Their 
knapsacks are full of grub." 

General Grant pulled up his horse. " Bring 
me one of those knapsacks," he requested. 

The knapsacks of several dead Confederates 
were brought to him. He opened them. Each 
one contained sufficient food for three days. In a 
moment General Grant saw the true meaning of 
it. The enemy were prepared for a three days' 
march. 

Like the great commander he was, he acted 
instantly. He turned to the officers of his staff 






THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON 97 

and explained, "The enemy are attempting to 
force their way out. The one who attacks first 
now will be victorious." He turned to Generals 
McClernand and Wallace, who commanded the 
Union troops on the right and center of the line. 
"Gentlemen, the position on our right must be 
retaken. I shall order an immediate assault on 
the left. Be ready to advance at the sound of 
Smith's guns." 

As General Grant hastened on down the line, 
an aide at his direction called out to the men, 
"Fill your cartridge boxes quick and get into 
line ! The enemy is trying to escape ! We must 
stop him ! " 

The sharp order put the men once more on their 
mettle. The order was given to advance, they 
responded with a cheer, and after desperate fight- 
ing the enemy was driven back to their former 
position close to the fort. The Confederates had 
had enough. Next morning at dawn General 
Buckner, the Confederate commander, sent a 
note to General Grant requesting terms of sur- 
render. 

General Grant's reply became famous. One 
of its businesslike expressions earned for the 
general yet another popular nickname — " Uncon- 
ditional Surrender " Grant It read : — 



98 ULYSSES S. GRANT 








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jew* <^n^«% 

/*-**< x-*^ <&<* 

Reproduced, by permission of D. Appleton & Company, from 
Frederick T. Hill's "On the Trail of Grant and Lee." 
Copyright, 1911, by D. Appleton and Company. 

The Confederate commander surrendered un- 
conditionally. From twelve to fifteen thousand 
men were made prisoners, and 20,000 rifles, 65 
cannon, 3000 horses, and large quantities of stores 
were taken. 

The victory at Fort Donelson, following so 
quickly after the victory at Fort Henry, was re- 
ceived throughout the country with the greatest 



THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON 99 

joy. So far the war had been a great disappoint- 
ment to the people of the North. Nowhere had 
the Northern armies gained any important success, 
and gloom had fallen upon the supporters of the 
Union. The capture of Fort Donelson, and the 
large number of prisoners taken, filled every one 
with delight, and almost in a day General Grant 
became a national hero. 

An interesting incident of the surrender was told 
long afterward by the Confederate General Buck- 
ner, whom Grant had known at West Point. "I 
had at a previous time befriended him," General 
Buckner said, referring to the occasion of Grant's 
return to New York, penniless, from the Pacific 
coast, when Buckner lent him needed money; 
"and it has been justly said that he never forgot 
a kindness. I met him on the boat, and he fol- 
lowed me when I went to my quarters. He . . . 
followed me, with that modesty peculiar to him, 
into the shadow, and there he tendered me his 
purse. It seems to me that in the modesty of 
his nature he was afraid the light would witness 
that act of generosity, and sought to hide it from 
the world." 

The victory of General Grant at Fort Donelson 
had one unfortunate result for him. It made 
him the object of a great deal of envy. General 



ioo ULYSSES S. GRANT 

McClellan's friends claimed the honor for him, 
as commander in chief; Foote's friends claimed 
it for him, as a naval victory ; Brigadier General 
McClernand claimed he had borne the brunt of 
the righting ; and Major General Halleck, who was 
next in rank over General Grant, thanked every 
one who had any part in the battle except Grant, 
and then claimed chief credit for himself. 

Secretary of War Stanton was one of the few 
to place the credit where it belonged. In a letter 
to Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, 
he wrote : — 

"I cannot suffer undue merit to be ascribed to 
my office for this action. The glory of our recent 
victories belongs to the brave soldiers that fought 
the battles. No share belongs to me. What, 
under the blessing of Providence, I consider to be 
the true organization of victory and military com- 
bination to end the war was declared in a few 
words by General Grant's message to General 
Buckner : 'I propose to move immediately on your 
works." ' 

While all this heated discussion was going on, 
General Grant and Commodore Foote were ar- 
ranging details for an immediate advance on 
Nashville. Their plans were interrupted by a 
telegram from General Halleck forbidding Foote 




Copyright by Underwood arid Underwood. 
General Grant in the Civil War. 



THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON 101 

to move his gunboats above Clarksville. Grant 
read the message in silence and passed it to Foote. 
"That ends our movement," said Foote. 

General Grant then made a trip toward Nash- 
ville to confer with General Buell. Before setting 
out, he telegraphed General Halleck of his in- 
tention, unless otherwise ordered. No word came 
in reply, and he proceeded. General Halleck 
seized on the opportunity to discredit General 
Grant. He reported to General McClellan, the 
commander in chief, that Grant had left his post 
without permission. "Satisfied with his victory," 
he wrote, "he sits and enjoys it without regard to 
the future. I am worn out and tired with his 
neglect and inefficiency." 

On the 2d of March, General Grant was ordered 
to take his force from Fort Donelson to Fort 
Henry, for an expedition up the Tennessee River. 
On reaching Fort Henry, however, he found a 
message from General Halleck which practically 
placed him under arrest. 

It read : — 

"You will place Major General C. F. Smith 
in command and remain yourself at Fort Henry. 
Why do you not obey my orders to report strength 
and positions of your command?" 

General Grant was astounded. It was the first 



102 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

he knew of General Halleck having asked for the 
information referred to. The inquiry had not 
reached him. As directed, however, he turned 
his command over to General Smith, and asked 
to be relieved of further duty under General 
Halleck. Fortunately, Secretary Stanton, at 
Washington, asked General Halleck for a full 
explanation of his charges against Grant. Hal- 
leck could not support them, and Grant was 
accordingly restored to his command. This oc- 
curred on the 17th of March. 

At once General Grant proceeded up the Tennes- 
see River to rejoin his army. He made his head- 
quarters at a small place called Savannah, a few 
miles north of Pittsburg Landing, where the 
army had been located by General Smith. Pitts- 
burg Landing, which lay close to the southern 
border of Tennessee, was merely the end of a 
road, and a wharf at which steamers could land. 
The road approached the river through a ravine. 
The army had been landed at this point because 
of its nearness to Corinth, on the northern edge 
of Mississippi, where a strong force of Confed- 
erates was gathered. 

Grant wished to advance upon Corinth im- 
mediately, but General Halleck ordered him to 
wait at the Landing until General Buell should 



THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON 103 

arrive with reinforcements from Kentucky. Mean- 
while, the Confederate commander, General A. S. 
Johnston, who had learned of General Buell's 
approach, laid a plan to "whip Grant before Buell 
could join him, and then whip Buell." 

On Sunday morning, April 6, General Grant 
was having breakfast at Savannah, where he was 
expecting a meeting with General Buell. Sud- 
denly through the quiet spring air came a low, 
jarring sound. A few moments later an orderly 
appeared, saluted, and said, 

"General, there is terrific firing up the river." 

General Grant coolly finished his breakfast. 
By this time the earth seemed to shake with the 
roar of cannon from the direction of Pittsburg 
Landing. He directed an orderly to take the 
horses of his staff to a river boat that was waiting, 
and wrote a note which he left for Buell. 

A few days before, General Grant's horse had 
slipped on a log and crushed the general's ankle. 
The ankle was now greatly swollen and very 
painful. With the aid of a crutch, General Grant 
made his way to the boat and started up the river. 
At Crump's Landing he had the boat stopped, 
and ordered General Lew Wallace, who was 
camped there, to have his men ready to march at 
a moment's notice. 



104 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

They continued, and the thunder of cannon 
increased to a roar. As Pittsburg Landing drew 
near, General Grant hobbled to his horse and 
swung himself into the saddle. They reached 
the wharf. The moment the gangplank was 
down General Grant spurred his horse across, 
and was off at a gallop ! 









CHAPTER XI 
The Battle of Shiloh 

Two or three miles from Pittsburg Landing 
was a small log meetinghouse, known as the 
Shiloh church. This church was the key to the 
Union position, and from it the battle took its 
name. 

The fighting had started very early that morn- 
ing. At three o'clock three companies of Con- 
federate infantry had been sent out from the 
Southern camp, three miles away. They had 
met the Union outposts a short distance in front 
of General Sherman's division, at Shiloh church. 
The Confederate skirmishers were followed by 
their main body, and a terrific attack was made. 
Both General Sherman and General McClernand, 
in command of the Union center, had been forced 
to give way, after suffering great loss. 

When General Grant arrived on the scene, 
between eight and nine o'clock, things were look- 
ing decidedly black for the Union army. Many 
of the troops, who had never before heard a shot 

105 



106 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

fired, were beginning to lose their nerve, and were 
falling back to the rear, to get under cover of the 
river bank. 

General Grant rode into the thick of the righting. 
He encouraged a faltering company here, he gave 
orders there, he helped to reform stragglers, and 
led them back to the firing-line. He saw that 
ammunition was sent where it was needed. 

Throughout the morning he was everywhere. 
But still the men in gray fought their way relent- 
lessly forward. Ground was given, retaken, and 
given, time and again. Some Union regiments 
lost all formation. They were mere fighting 
mobs, still resisting desperately, but brokenly. 

By two o'clock General Grant began to expe- 
rience some anxiety. Neither General Buell nor 
General Wallace had arrived with their reinforce- 
ments. Staff officers were sent to hurry Wallace, 
and found that he had taken the wrong road from 
Crump's Landing, and was now farther away from 
the scene of the fighting than when he had started. 
Still the frightful din of rifles and cannon con- 
tinued, and still the recklessly-charging Confed- 
erates drove the Union lines nearer the river. 

Late in the day General Buell arrived, ahead of 
his men. Having approached from the rear and 
seen a considerable body of stragglers under the 



THE BATTLE OF SHILOH 107 

shelter of the river bank, he thought the day was 
lost. His first question to General Grant was, 

"What preparations have you made for re- 
treat?" 

General Grant was not yet ready to consider 
himself beaten, however. 

"I haven't despaired of whipping them yet," 
he replied. 

When night came, the Union line had been 
crushed back close to the river bank. The rein- 
forcements of Wallace and Buell had arrived, 
but too late to be of assistance. A pouring 
rain was falling, and when the firing ceased the 
men lay down where they had fought, to get what 
sleep they could in their drenched clothes. 

The darkness did not bring rest for General 
Grant. Although suffering greatly from his crushed 
and swollen ankle, as well as from fatigue, he set 
about visiting each of his division commanders, 
and planning the resumption of the battle in the 
morning. He directed the re-forming of the 
broken Union lines, led General Wallace and 
General Buell to their positions, and ordered an 
attack all along the Union front at daybreak. 

"Attack with a heavy skirmishing line as soon as 
it is light enough to see," he directed, "then follow 
up with your entire command, leaving no reserves." 



108 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

By midnight he had completed his arrangements. 
Returning to the Landing, he took the first rest 
he had known since daybreak of the previous morn- 
ing. He threw himself on the wet ground under 
a tree. The rain was still falling heavily, and 
toward morning he became so chilled that he rose 
and hobbled to the porch of a log hut. The house 
was filled with wounded men, and their moans 
and cries so affected him that he returned to the 
inadequate shelter of the tree. 

It seemed an endless night, but at last dawn 
broke. He was lifted into his saddle, and again 
hastened off along the lines. To one of his aides 
he gave the command: "See that every division 
moves up to the attack. Press the enemy hard 
the minute it is light enough to see." 

Grant's determination and confidence had worked 
a wonderful change in the Union troops over night. 
Notwithstanding their awful experiences of the 
day before, the remembrance of comrades shot 
down beside them, the crashing rifle-volleys and 
the screaming shells, the men sprang again to the 
conflict. The Confederates fought back bravely 
and doggedly, but gradually they were forced to 
give way, just as they, the day before, had forced 
back the Union ranks. 

All the morning and on into the afternoon the 



THE BATTLE OF SHILOH 109 

desperate charging and countercharging kept up. 
And steadily the Union lines continued their 
advance. It was about three o'clock when the 
booming of the enemy's guns on the left began 
to subside. The volleys of musketry came less 
frequently. 

General Grant saw that the deciding moment 
had arrived. He gathered together two regiments, 
and himself led them forward toward a part of the 
Confederate line that was still resisting. When 
within short range he gave the command to charge. 
With a wild cheer from the men the line of glitter- 
ing bayonets swept forward, the enemy broke and 
ran, and the great battle of Shiloh was won. 

It had been won at a heavy cost. Nearly two 
thousand Union men lay dead in the fields and 
among the trees, 8408 were wounded, and 2855 
were missing. The Confederate loss is not ac- 
curately known, but it could not have been less 
than three thousand killed and a great many 
more wounded and missing. The dead included 
their leader, General A. S. Johnston. 

General Grant was blamed because of the heavy 
losses of the Union troops in the battle of Shiloh. 
But where the fighting was so fiercely determined 
on both sides, it could not well have been avoided 
by any generalship. Incidentally the heavy losses 



no ULYSSES S. GRANT 

proved the splendid courage of the troops on both 
sides. It meant that hundreds of men who never 
before had heard a shot fired in battle, for two 
days had fought and struggled like veterans, while 
friends and comrades fell all around them, dead 
or wounded. 

These are not pleasant details, but they are 
facts that never should be forgotten. These 
fathers, brothers, and husbands paid this enormous 
price that our country might be what it is to-day. 

The battle of Shiloh showed General Grant to 
be a great leader of men. No general ever faced 
a more discouraging outlook than that which con- 
fronted him at the end of the first day's fighting. 
But he never lost his head, never became excited 
nor discouraged. During the hottest moments of 
the battle he never indulged in profanity, but 
spoke quietly and calmly. It was this quiet 
manner that inspired his men with such confidence 
in him. 

There are many stories told of the battle of 
Shiloh — or the battle of Pittsburg Landing, as 
it is also called. Most of them are sad. 

"On that peaceful Sunday morning, " said one 
survivor, "I had walked out to enjoy the fresh 
air, and, returning by my friend Lieutenant D's 
tent, I called on him. 'Have a cup of coffee with 



THE BATTLE OF SHILOH ill 

me/ he invited. 4 'I have found some milk.' 
'Don't care if I do/ said I. 'I always write 
home on Sunday morning, and like to do it over 
a good cup of coffee.' 

'"'I'm going to write my little wife, too/ said D. 
'I expect to resign soon. Don't you want a pair 
of new shoulder-straps and a brand-new pair of 
gauntlets ? ' 

"That evening D. was lying dead by the road- 
side at the Landing." 

Another sad incident is told of a young Con- 
federate boy-soldier. Doubtless, like many another 
boy-soldier of the Civil War, he had left home 
gayly, expecting to return covered with glory, to 
tell of all kinds of fine adventures. Two days 
after the battle, General Rousseau entered a hos- 
pital tent rilled with Confederate wounded. A 
boyish voice called his name, "General! General 
Rousseau!" 

He turned to discover a handsome lad of about 
sixteen lying on the bare, hard ground. The boy 
had been shot through the lungs, and was breath- 
ing with great difficulty. 

"General, I knew your son Dickey. Where is 
he?" said the boy hoarsely. 

General Rousseau knelt by the lad's side. 
"Who are you, my son?" he asked. 



Li 2 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

"I am Eddie McFadden, from Louisville. I 
knew you, General. I knew your son Dick well. 
I used to play with him." 

General Rousseau was greatly affected. In his 
mind's eye he could see his own boy lying there, 
like this lad, his playmate. He did what he could 
for the wounded boy, and as no blankets were to 
be had, he sent him his own saddle-blanket to lie 
upon. The blanket was not needed long, for the 
little Confederate soon joined the many who went 
into the Great Beyond from that blood-stained 
field. 






CHAPTER XII 

The Occupation of Corinth 

General Grant's splendid victory at Shiloh 
aroused more jealousy. Brigadier General Mc- 
Clernand wrote President Lincoln claiming chief 
credit, Brigadier General Buell declared he had 
saved the Union army from flight, and General 
Halleck, in a message to the secretary of war, 
gave the credit to General Sherman. 

The old stories of Grant's fondness for liquor 
were revived by his enemies, and it was even de- 
clared he had been under the influence of intoxicants 
during the battle. This, of course, was absolutely 
untrue, but so much was made of it that President 
Lincoln was asked to remove General Grant from 
duty. The President was wiser than his advisers. 
He did not allow himself to forget that no other 
general, either in the east or the west, had shown 
so much energy and such results. So he replied, 

"I can't spare Grant; he fights." 

General Halleck, however, practically removed 
Grant for a time. He himself proceeded to Pitts- 
i 113 



ii 4 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

burg Landing, and as General Grant's superior in 
rank, took over the command of Grant's army. 

After the battle of Shiloh the Confederates re- 
tired to Corinth. There, under General Beaure- 
gard, they fortified themselves, and received rein- 
forcements that raised their numbers to 70,000 
men. 

Against this force General Halleck called for 
Union reinforcements until he had a grand total 
of 120,000 men. The command included the Army 
of the Ohio, under General Bell ; the Army of the 
Mississippi, under General Pope, and the Army of 
the Tennessee, which General Grant was supposed 
to lead. 

With such a splendid force at his command, the 
country looked to General Halleck to accomplish 
great things. There was no reason why he should 
not. 
But he made no forward move. Day after day 
passed, and he held his great force idle behind earth- 
work defenses, as though afraid to venture out. 
Meanwhile, General Grant was little more than a 
spectator. Halleck ignored him and consulted 
other junior generals when he wished advice. Sug- 
gestions that General Grant offered were treated 
with contempt. 

At last the situation became unbearable, and 



THE OCCUPATION OF CORINTH 115 

General Grant asked to be relieved of duty. Gen- 
eral Sherman, who was a true friend and admirer 
of Grant, heard of it. He hastily found Grant, and 
after much argument persuaded him to remain. 

It was on the 30th of April when General Halleck 
began to move his army forward toward the Con- 
federate position at Corinth. He proceeded at a 
snail's pace. 

It is scarcely twenty miles from Pittsburg Land- 
ing to Corinth. Before the battle of Shiloh General 
Johnston had marched the Confederate army over 
the same distance in two days. General Grant be- 
lieved he could have attacked Corinth within the 
same time. General Halleck wasted a month. 

His plan was to move a section of his army a 
short distance, then cause it to halt and intrench ; 
another section would move forward and intrench, 
and so on. His orders to his division commanders 
were to avoid bringing on a general engagement. 
If necessary to prevent a serious fight, they were 
to fall back. 

Small encounters with Confederate outposts oc- 
curred, but because of the orders given, no general 
battle resulted. And on the 28th of May reports 
came in that the enemy had been evacuating Cor- 
inth for several days. Railroad men in the Union 
ranks said they could tell, by placing their ear 



n6 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

to the rails, which way trains were running, and 
whether they were loaded or empty ; and they de- 
clared that loaded trains had been running out of 
Corinth for some time. 

General Halleck refused to believe it, and con- 
tinued to "edge along. " 

At length the Union army arrived before the town. 
The advance parties entered and found it deserted ! 

Not only had the Confederates disappeared with 
their entire force, including their sick and wounded, 
but they had carried away all their supplies, and 
left only some imitation wooden guns pointing over 
the empty earthworks. 

The whole Union army was amused and dis- 
gusted. It was thus that General Halleck proved 
his " superiority " over General Grant. 

The occupation of Corinth was of importance, 
but the escape of the entire Confederate force was 
regarded as a Union failure. It is certain that the 
story would have been different had Grant been 
in command. 

After the occupation of Corinth, General Halleck 
continued his "safe" tactics. Instead of ener- 
getically following the retreating garrison, he sent 
a column in pursuit for some thirty miles, then re- 
called it, and began constructing a great system of 
forts and rifle pits. 



THE OCCUPATION OF CORINTH 117 

Meantime he continued to make General Grant's 
position as unpleasant as possible. Grant bore it 
a little longer, then asked permission to transfer 
his headquarters to Memphis. The permission 
was granted, and he at once left Corinth, accom- 
panied only by his personal staff and a small cavalry 
escort. 

On the way to Memphis the party had a narrow 
escape from capture. Bodies of Confederate cav- 
alry roamed the country, and one of these, under 
General Jackson, pursued General Grant to a cer- 
tain crossroad. There the Confederates decided 
that their horses, not being as fresh as those of 
Grant's party, could not catch them, and so turned 
back. Had they gone but a short distance farther 
they would have found the General and his compan- 
ions resting by the roadside, quite unconscious 
of their danger. 

General Grant had not been long in Memphis 
when fortune once more turned his way. On the 
10th of July General Halleck was ordered to turn 
his command over to the next in rank, and to pro- 
ceed to Washington. As his next in rank was Gen- 
eral Grant, there was nothing for General Halleck 
to do but recall General Grant from Memphis. 
And this he did. 

Grant felt as though a cloud had lifted. He 



n8 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

was himself again. But on returning to Corinth, 
he found that Halleck had scattered the once great 
army of 120,000, and had left him with only 50,000 
troops to cover the hundred-mile line extending 
from Corinth to Memphis. 

About the middle of September the Confederate 
generals, Price and Van Dorn, began a movement 
to attack and defeat Grant, or to pass him by 
and reenforce the Confederate General Bragg, 
in his campaign in Kentucky against Buell, who 
had left Corinth on June 10 to march upon 
Chattanooga. 

Grant heard of this move and immediately began 
to make some plans himself. He directed Generals 
Rosecrans and Ord, who between them had some 
17,000 men, to attack the Confederates under 
General Price at Iuka, twenty-two miles south- 
west of Corinth, on the Memphis and Charleston 
railroad. On the 18th of September General 
Ord moved to Burnsville by rail, seven miles from 
Iuka, and there left the cars and continued afoot. 
General Rosecrans was to join General Ord the 
following day, coming from Rienzi, southwest of 
Iuka. 

Late in the afternoon of the 19th General Rose- 
crans was himself attacked by the Confederates, 
and brought to a halt, with the loss of several guns. 



THE OCCUPATION OF CORINTH 119 

A strong wind was blowing from the north, and pre- 
vented the sound of the firing from reaching Gen- 
eral Ord. Consequently it was late when a courier 
reached Grant with the news. Grant directed Gen- 
eral Ord to attack Iuka early in the morning with- 
out waiting for Rosecrans. General Ord advanced 
to do so and found Iuka deserted. The hold-up 
of General Rosecrans had given the enemy time to 
escape. 

The next move of consequence was an attempt of 
the Confederates to recapture Corinth. General 
Grant was at Jackson when word of their intention 
reached him. General Rosecrans was in command 
at Corinth. Grant ordered Generals McPherson 
and Hurlbut, who were at Jackson and Bolivar 
with their divisions, to go to Rosecrans' assistance. 
Before they arrived, the Confederate general, Van 
Dorn, made a dashing attack on the town, hoping 
to capture it before help came. The fighting was 
desperate. The Southerners were beaten back, 
but pluckily charged again and again, and at one 
point forced their way inside the fortifications. 
After a terrific struggle they were driven out. The 
Union reinforcements then arrived, and the at- 
tackers were compelled to retire. 

While Grant was not present at the battle of 
Corinth, it was largely due to the system of earth- 



120 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

works and rifle pits planned by him that the town 
escaped capture. The determination and courage 
of the Confederate assault is indicated by their 
heavy loss of 1423 men in killed. The defenders, 
righting from their breastworks, lost 315 men killed 
and 181 2 wounded. 






CHAPTER XIII 

VlCKSBURG 

On the 25th of October, 1862, General Grant 
was given command of the Department of the 
Tennessee. At once he began planning for the cap- 
ture of Vicksburg. 

Until December 20 the campaign proceeded suc- 
cessfully. Then came a mishap. An important 
supply depot at Holly Springs was captured by 
the enemy, and a great quantity of food, forage, 
and ammunition was destroyed. The loss was 
serious. It meant that two months' work was 
practically thrown away, and that the move on 
Vicksburg must be abandoned for another month 
or so, until more supplies could be brought down 
from the north. 

Grant's manner on receiving the news offers 
a fine example of self-control. Captain Charles 
Eaton, who was with him at the time, told of the 
incident : 

"My personal business with the General was 
finished, and I was sitting beside him in the front 

121 



122 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

door of the house in which his headquarters were 
located, when an early morning telegram was 
brought him giving confirmation of the Holly 
Springs disaster, of the night before. 

"Much as it meant to him — the reversal of all 
his plans for the movement on Vicksburg — there 
was on his face no sign of disturbance that I could 
see, save a slight twitching of the mustache. He 
told me very quietly and dispassionately that the 
night before he telegraphed Colonel Murphy (who 
was in command at Holly Springs), warning him 
of Van Dorn's approach, and directing him to be 
on guard. . . . The loss of the supplies was then 
considered a great blow to the army, and necessi- 
tated an immediate withdrawal and reorganization 
of all General Grant's plans. ... In the midst of 
this disturbance he was ready as always to listen to 
what I had to say concerning the work assigned 
me. 

Because of the setback it was nearly March, 
1863, when General Grant's campaign against 
Vicksburg actually began. 

Vicksburg was frequently spoken of as the Gi- 
braltar of the South. It occupied a ridge of high 
land which looked down upon the wide sweep of the 
great Mississippi, and its long line of forts com- 
manded an S-shaped bend of the river so that 



VICKSBURG 123 

vessels coming from the north must twice pass 
within range of every gun. 

As Grant was on the west side of the stream, his 
first problem was to cross with his 40,000 men, 
guns, wagons, and supplies to the Vicksburg side. 
He had the vessels, but the difficulty was first to 
reach the actual river bank through the wide swamps 
that bordered it, and next, to find a landing-place 
on the eastern shore. He sent expeditions to look 
for landing-places by way of the Yazoo River and 
the creeks and bayous northeast of the city. These 
failed, after great hardships. The only plan left 
was to move the fleet of Union boats below Vicks- 
burg, and find landing-places to the south. 

An attempt was first made to dig a canal across 
the "S" in the river opposite the town. It was 
hoped that the river would turn into this new chan- 
nel and cut it out deep enough to allow vessels 
to pass through. Then the fleet could have passed 
below Vicksburg without coming under the fire of 
all its forts. But the river rose so high from the 
heavy rains that it spread out over the flats, and 
began to fill up the canal instead of deepening it. 
There was then nothing for the Union fleet to do 
but run past the forts on some dark night. 

On the 15th of April General Grant asked Ad- 
miral Porter if he was ready to run the blockade. 



124 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

"I will be ready to-morrow night/ ' replied the 
admiral. 

The attempt was considered most dangerous, 
and General Grant called only for volunteers to 
man the transports. So many presented them- 
selves that several additional vessels might have 
been manned. One volunteer was offered a hun- 
dred dollars for his chance to go, and refused to 
accept it. These were no fair-weather and parade- 
day soldiers! 

The fleet was made up of eight gunboats and three 
transports carrying soldiers and provisions, each 
towing a barge with supplies. 

At about ten o'clock at night on April 16 the 
flagship Benton, with all lights out, started drifting 
down the stream. At twenty-minute intervals 
she was followed by the Lafayette, the Price, the 
Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, and Carondelet. 
Then came the transports Forest Queen, Silver Wave, 
and Henry Clay, with their barges. The gunboat 
Tuscumbia brought up the rear. 

There was a grand ball at Vicksburg that night, 
and Admiral Porter thought the sentries at the 
forts would not be so vigilant. For a time it looked 
as if he had guessed correctly. Like ghost vessels 
the fleet slipped down the river, and not a sound 
broke the stillness. 






VICKSBURG 



125 



But suddenly, just as the Benton neared the first 
bend in the "S," there was a flare of light on the 
levee. It flamed up into the blaze of a bonfire, 
and in a moment there came a crash of guns from 
one of the forts. Other fires burst out, other forts 
joined in, and quickly the roaring and crashing was 
deafening. 

It was a wonderful and terrific spectacle. It 
seemed as if every boat must be sunk. They were 
struck repeatedly. But they kept on, and when 
the gunboats came opposite the city, they threw 
open their ports and began replying with grape 
and shrapnel. 

For more than two hours the vessels were under 
the fire of the forts. At last they drew out of 
range, and it was found that only one of the fleet 
had been lost. The transport Henry Clay had been 
set on fire and burned to the water's edge. Surpris- 
ing to relate, not a single life was lost, and only a 
few men were wounded. 

General Grant now had two transports with which 
to ferry his troops to the eastern shore of the Mis- 
sissippi. Time was important, however, and he 
decided to run a second flotilla down past the 
Vicksburg batteries. The attempt was made on 
the night of April 22, and was also successful, 
although another steamboat and five barges were 



126 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

lost. Five transports and seven barges with sup- 
plies succeeded in coming through. 

Grant now had the vessels to ferry his army to 
the eastern side of the Mississippi. It was first 
necessary to find a landing-place. A search by 
small boats proved unsuccessful. General Grant 
then called upon the gunboats to attack the forti- 
fications at Grand Gulf, some miles south of Vicks- 
burg, in the hope of capturing this point as a land- 
ing-place. The attack failed. 

General Grant was still undiscouraged. He di- 
rected the fleet to "run" the forts at Grand Gulf, 
just as they had "run" the forts at Vicksburg. 
The vessels accomplished the feat with but little 
damage, and finally, on the 30th of April, a landing 
was made at Bayou Pierre, and 20,000 men put 
ashore. 

The next day the Union army met a Con- 
federate force sent out from Vicksburg, and de- 
feated it after a fight which lasted till nightfall. 
This was the battle of Port Gibson. When the 
Confederates were driven back, they also retreated 
from Grand Gulf, and that place fell into General 
Grant's hands. 

On the 8th of May General Sherman arrived with 
reinforcements which increased Grant's army to 
32,000 men. It was with this force that General 



VICKSBURG I27 

Grant set out on one of the most daring campaigns 
on record. 

He planned to rout or drive into Vicksburg two 
armies, one of 50,000 men under General Pember- 
ton, and another whose numbers he did not know, 
which was assembling under General Johnston' 
fifty miles to the northeast, at Jackson, the state 
capital. And to accomplish the task his troops 
were to carry only three days' rations, so that they 
might travel more rapidly, and not be held back by 
slow-moving supply- wagons. 

On the nth of May General Grant left Grand 
Gulf and marched rapidly toward Jackson. On 
the 1 2 th, at Raymond, he met and defeated a force 
sent out to obstruct his progress. 

Meanwhile, General Pemberton had come out 
from Vicksburg to attack the Union army in the 
rear. General Grant paid no attention to this 
force, but hurried eastward to attack Johnston 
before Johnston was fully ready for him. He 
was successful, and on the 14th he attacked and 
drove the Confederates in flight from Jackson, 
and occupied the town. Large quantities of 
military stores were captured. Such of these as 
were not wanted were burned, and the railroad 
was destroyed. 
On the same day General Grant turned part of 



128 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

his army back westward, toward General Pember- 
ton's army and Vicksburg. On the next day, the 
15th, he captured a dispatch from Johnston direct- 
ing Pemberton to attack the Union army on the 
west, while Johnston himself advanced again from 
the north. 

General Grant was not to be caught in such a 
trap. He hurried his whole force west, and came 
up with Pemberton before Johnston had got in 
touch with him. The encounter took place at 
Champion's Hill, on the 16th, and was the most 
desperately fought battle of the campaign. It 
lasted all day, but the Confederates finally gave 
way and were pursued until after dark. Their 
losses were very heavy ; 3000 killed and wounded, 
3000 prisoners, and 30 cannon. The Union losses 
were 410 killed, 1844 wounded, and 187 missing. 

As usual, General Grant was in the midst of the 
fighting, apparently unconscious of being in any 
danger. One of the men in the ranks 1 related 
this incident of the battle, showing the general's 
coolness and courage : — 

"We were standing two files deep, bearing as 
patiently as we could a heavy and steady fire from 
infantry, while an occasional cannon-ball tore up 
the earth in our front. 

1 Byers. 



VTCKSBURG 129 

"'Colonel, move your men a little by the left 
flank/ said a quiet though commanding voice. On 
looking round I saw Grant immediately behind us. 
He was mounted on a beautiful gray mare, and 
followed by several of his staff. For some reason 
he dismounted, and most of his officers were sent 
to other parts of the field. 

"Here was Grant under fire. He stood leaning 
quietly against his horse. . . . His was the only 
horse near the line, and must naturally have at- 
tracted the enemy's fire. 'What if he should be 
killed?' I thought to myself. In front of us was 
the enemy, behind us and about us, and liable to 
overcome and crush us at any moment . . . yet 
there he remained, clear, calm, and immovable." 

General Pemberton, after his defeat at Cham- 
pion's Hill, fell back to the Big Black River, ten 
miles from Vicksburg. There, the next day, was 
fought the battle of the Big Black, as it was called. 
Once again Grant won, capturing 18 cannon and 
1800 prisoners ; and General Pemberton retreated 
within the fortifications of Vicksburg. 

The preliminary campaign which had thus ended 
was one of the greatest in military history. In a 
little over two weeks General Grant had marched 
his army two hundred miles, had fought and won 
five battles, defeating two separate armies, each 



130 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

larger than his own; had captured 88 cannon, 
taken 6000 prisoners, seized a state capital, and 
destroyed thirty miles of important railroad. In 
doing all this he had lost only 4335 men in killed, 
wounded, and missing, which was less than the 
enemy had lost in killed alone. The great Napoleon 
himself never planned and carried out a cam- 
paign with more complete success. 

Now that he was before Vicksburg, General 
Grant's energy did not slacken. Two days after 
the battle of the Big Black he had replaced the 
bridge destroyed by the retreating enemy. He 
crossed over with part of his army, and advancing 
on the city, made a preliminary assault. On the 
2 2d of May he ordered a grand assault along the 
whole long line of the Confederate defenses. The 
particular reason for this attack was the news that 
the Confederate General Johnston was approach- 
ing, fifty miles to the eastward. If General Grant 
were able to rush the city and capture it imme- 
diately, he would then be able to turn and meet 
Johnston with a strong force. His men also were 
eager to make the attack. They believed they 
could storm the Confederate works and carry 
them at the point of the bayonet. 

The defenses of Vicksburg on this, the land side, 
followed a number of high ridges in a great half- 



VICKSBURG 131 

circle seven miles long. The ridges lay about two 
miles from the city proper. 

To reach these earthworks, the Northern troops 
were obliged to descend into hollows and valleys, 
and charge up steep slopes through canebrake and 
a network of fallen trees. 

The assault was begun at ten in the morning along 
the whole line. The reply from the defenders was 
a terrific fire of musketry and artillery. Bravely, 
though with terrible losses, the Union men struggled 
up the slopes. Again and again they were forced 
to fall back in order to re-form their ranks. Again 
and again they charged. Here and there small 
parties succeeded in reaching the base of the para- 
pets. They got no farther, and at nightfall they 
retired, without having taken a single redoubt. 

The failure showed that Vicksburg could be taken 
only by a siege. 

General Grant tackled this problem as energeti- 
cally as he had all others. He first directed the 
placing of the artillery in batteries at points from 
which they could do the most effective work. 
There were two hundred and twenty guns in all, 
although none were of large size. The guns opened 
fire, and under cover of the bombardment, the 
engineers and sappers, or trench-diggers, went for- 
ward to within six hundred yards of the outer 



132 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Confederate defenses, and began digging trenches 
and rifle pits and throwing up breastworks. 

The first line of Union earthworks was nearly 
fifteen miles in length. When it was completed, the 
next stage of the operations began — the digging of 
" advancing" trenches, or "saps." These were 
trenches dug forward in zigzags, first in one direc- 
tion, and then in another, in such a way that the 
enemy could not fire directly into them. Tunnels 
also were dug, sometimes for long distances. 

For more than a month the digging operations 
continued, the fighting being left to the artillery 
and the sharpshooters posted along the finished 
trenches. 

In places the advancing trenches were at last 
carried so near to the enemy's works that Union 
and Confederate soldiers could converse with one 
another. Occasionally the Union soldiers would 
exchange bread for Confederate tobacco. At other 
times the enemy would throw hand-grenades, or 
bombs, which the Union men would sometimes catch 
in their hands, like baseballs, and throw back. 

During the second month of the siege, a tunnel 
was started from one of the most advanced of the 
Union trenches. By the 25th of June it had been 
carried beneath the opposite Confederate works, 
and preparations were made to mine and explode 



VICKSBURG 133 

it. When all was ready, an assaulting party was 
brought forward, and the mine was fired. 

There was a terrific, muffled roar, and the whole 
crest of the ridge went into the air. When the 
cloud of smoke and earth had settled, a deep, 
wide hole was left. With a cheer the waiting troops 
charged through the breach. A short distance 
within they were brought to a halt. The Con- 
federates had discovered the digging of the tunnel, 
and had prepared a second line of defenses. The 
attacking party held their ground valiantly, but 
were unable to push ahead, and when darkness 
came they were ordered to fall back. 

A negro who went through the explosion had a 
remarkable experience. He was working under- 
ground in a tunnel the Confederates were digging 
near the Union tunnel. When the explosion came, 
he was thrown up to the surface, high in the air, 
and fell among a group of Union soldiers. He was 
not much hurt, but terribly frightened. 

"How high up did you go, Sam?" asked one of 
the men. 

"Ah dunno, Massa," replied the shaking negro, 
"but Ah t'ink 'bout free miles !" 

As the first mine had failed to open a way through 
the enemy's defenses, a second tunnel was started. 
It was fired, and resulted in the complete destruc- 



134 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

tion of a Confederate redoubt. This time no as- 
sault' was made. General Grant had determined 
not to attack until several mines had been prepared, 
so that assaults could be made at several points 
simultaneously. 

On the i st of July the mines were ready for firing. 
The word passed along the Union lines that a grand 
assault was to be made as a celebration on the 
Fourth. But happily this was not to be necessary. 

At ten o'clock on the morning of July 3, white 
flags were shown along the Confederate defenses, 
and two officers appeared, bearing a flag of truce. 
They were escorted to General Grant, and handed 
him a letter from General Pemberton, the Confed- 
erate commander, asking for terms of surrender. 

And the surrender was made at ten o'clock the 
following morning, the Glorious Fourth ! 

It was indeed a glorious " celebration." But 
there was no cheering or other outward signs of 
jubilation. General Grant, thoughtful even of his 
enemies, had issued orders that there should be no 
hurrahing; and the Union troops, standing along 
their breastworks, looked on in silence. Very 
probably the order would not have been necessary. 
A truly brave soldier will always be kind to a van- 
quished enemy who has fought bravely. And 
these men had courageously fought a losing fight, 



VICKSBURG 135 

week after week, and on the shortest rations of poor 
food. 

They marched out of their intrenchments, regi- 
ment after regiment, — over 31,000 in all, — a sad 
procession ; and in silence stacked their rifles, and 
made into a pile their knapsacks, haversacks, and 
cartridge-boxes. Last of all they added their tat- 
tered, bullet-riddled flags. 

And so ended in complete success one of the great- 
est sieges of modern history. A natural result of 
the great victory was the raising of General Grant 
to the rank of major-general. 



CHAPTER XIV 

Chattanooga 

A few weeks after the fall of Vicksburg, General 
Grant was in New Orleans to confer with General 
Banks. While returning from a review of General 
Banks' troops, a few miles from the city, his horse 
became frightened at a passing locomotive, and 
he was thrown and seriously injured. He was 
unconscious for several hours, and when he came 
to, found himself in a hotel. For a week he was 
compelled to remain there, suffering great pain, 
and was then carried aboard a river steamer and 
removed to Vicksburg. 

While General Grant was confined to his bed 
in New Orleans, General Halleck, now commander 
in chief at Washington, telegraphed him to send 
reinforcements to General Rosecrans, who was 
campaigning against a Confederate army under 
General Bragg in Tennessee and northern Georgia. 
Because of poor telegraphic connections between 
Washington and New Orleans, the dispatch had 
been delayed, and in the meantime General Rose- 

136 



CHATTANOOGA 137 

crans had been attacked and badly defeated at 
Chickamauga. His forces had been driven into 
Chattanooga, and were practically besieged there. 
President Lincoln and his military cabinet were 
greatly alarmed. They turned to General Grant 
for help, and on the 16th of October he was directed 
to proceed to Louisville, to meet an officer of the 
War Department with instructions. Although still 
walking with crutches, Grant complied, and on the 
way met Secretary of War Stanton. During the 
journey the secretary handed General Grant an 
order appointing him head of the Military Division 
of the Mississippi, with command over the Depart- 
ments of the Ohio, Cumberland, and Tennessee. 

That night at Louisville a message came from 
Assistant Secretary of War Dana, who was at 
Chattanooga, saying that General Rosecrans was 
about to abandon the town, and advising that he 
be ordered not to do so. 

During the battle of Chickamauga, General 
Rosecrans had only been saved from a greater 
defeat by the splendid fighting of his left wing, 
under General Thomas. Grant had always con- 
sidered General Thomas to be the better general. 
Therefore he now appointed Thomas to the chief 
command at Chattanooga in place of Rosecrans, 
and telegraphed him, — 



138 



ULYSSES S. GRANT 



"Hold Chattanooga at all hazards. I will be there as 
soon as possible." 

General Thomas replied, 

" We will hold the town till we starve." 

The nearest railroad point to Chattanooga at 
that time was Bridgeport, forty miles away. Grant 
reached Bridgeport, and began the remainder of 
the journey in an ambulance, over roads made 
wretched by a steady rain. The jolting proved 
too much for his bruised side, and he took to his 
horse. This also was very painful, and from time 
to time the men of his escort were compelled to 
lift him from the saddle and carry him a distance. 
But there was no thought of turning back, or 
halting, and on the evening of October 23 he ar- 
rived at his destination. 

He at once sought General Thomas, to discuss 
the situation with him. Its seriousness had not 
been exaggerated. The Union troops held very 
little ground outside the town, while the enemy, 
numbering forty to fifty thousand men, occupied 
strongly fortified positions on every height to the 
east, south, and southwest. They held Mission- 
ary Ridge, a long, low hill to the east and south ; 
Lookout Mountain, a bold height which almost over- 
looked Chattanooga, and a hill known as Orchard 
Knob, lying in the valley scarcely out of rifle shot. 



CHATTANOOGA 139 

As for the army in the town, it was short of 
ammunition, short of rations, ragged, tired, and 
discouraged. Even wood with which to make 
fires for cooking and warmth was difficult to ob- 
tain. The sick and wounded were without proper 
accommodation and necessaries. The horses and 
mules were dying of starvation. 

General Grant quickly "made things move." 
Within a week he had found and forced a way for 
bringing in supplies by the Tennessee River. He 
had started General Sherman with reinforcements 
from Corinth, two hundred miles away, and had 
moved General Hooker with his division forward 
from Bridgeport. 

The effect on the spirits of the army in Chatta- 
nooga was shown immediately. Discouragement 
and signs of privation disappeared, and gave place to 
cheerfulness and an eagerness to resume the conflict. 

General Sherman arrived on the 20th of Novem- 
ber. Three days later the battle of Chattanooga 
began. Brigadier General Granger had been or- 
dered forward with a division of the Fourth Corps, 
to disclose the position of the enemy. The prepa- 
rations were made, and at half-past eleven in the 
forenoon, in full sight of the enemy, the Third 
Division moved against the Confederate position 
on Orchard Knob. 



140 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Ignoring the heavy fire that broke out as soon 
as they were in range, the Union troops advanced 
in a long, steady line, firing in return. They 
gained the foot of the hill, and with a rush and a 
cheer they went up. For a few minutes the enemy 
fought desperately to throw back the blue-coated 
wave. The impetuous charge reached the trenches, 
and the defenders broke and fled. 

This ended the fighting on the 23d. 

Meanwhile, General Hooker was leading his divi- 
sion forward on the right of the Union position, 
and General Sherman on the left. All day on the 
24th, concealed by a mist, General Hooker's men 
were forcing their way up the slopes of Lookout 
Mountain. The remainder of the Union army 
waited, and listened to the sound of the distant 
firing. Night fell, and the firing ceased. Morning 
came, and a great cheer rolled along the Union 
center. The "battle above the clouds" had been 
won! The Stars and Stripes were waving vic- 
toriously from the crest of the mountain ! 

General Grant, from a vantage point on Orchard 
Knob, turned toward the left of his battle line. 
There he had ordered General Sherman to advance 
and attack at daybreak. He could see large bodies 
of the enemy moving toward that end of the ridge 
to oppose Sherman. 



CHATTANOOGA 141 

Presently from the north came the faint boom 
of cannon. Sherman had attacked. 

General Grant faced south, where he had directed 
Hooker to push on along the ridge. Apparently 
Hooker's men had not yet moved. Grant waited 
for a time, then turned to General Thomas, who 
commanded the Union center. 

"Hooker has not yet come up, but I think you 
had better move, on Sherman's account," he said 
quietly. 

General Thomas sent an order. Near by, a cannon 
roared, another, and another — six in quick succes- 
sion. It was the signal for the center to advance. 

A great blue line of men, two miles long, three 
ranks deep, started forward across the valley. 
With the morning light sparkling on twenty thou- 
sand bayonets, it was a thrilling spectacle. 

Across the plain the line swept, bending a little 
here and there, like a great wave rolling toward a 
beach. Puffs of white smoke broke out along its 
front, and there came the crackling of rifles. Can- 
non up on the ridge quickly responded, and the 
rifle pits below returned volley for volley. 

The blue line pressed on. It drew near the 
slope, and suddenly the enemy swarmed from their 
trenches and fell back hurriedly to their second line 
of defenses. 



142 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

The firing was now terrific. The blue wave fal- 
tered and broke. But again it moved on, no longer 
a single line, but a great zigzagging chain of hurry- 
ing, scrambling groups, each group clustering 
around a fluttering flag. Occasionally a group 
would falter and pause. The color-bearer had 
fallen. But quickly the flag would reappear and 
the group would hasten on. 

The crest of the ridge was now a continuous flame 
of cannon-fire and musketry, blazing through a 
wall of smoke. The noise was deafening. But the 
blue line mounted steadily. 

Across the valley our General was watching, 
apparently cool and unexcited. When the second 
line of rifle pits was carried, he suddenly called 
for his horse. "I'm going up there!" he said. 

Down from the hill and across the plain he 
raced, followed by his staff. As he rode he saw 
the wave of blue pour over the last line of the 
enemy's trenches, then break over the crest of the 
ridge itself. Almost immediately the roar of the 
guns began to subside; and when Grant arrived 
at the summit, he was just in time to see the enemy 
breaking in wild flight. 

The battle of Chattanooga had been won ! 

The next day was Thanksgiving Day — one of 
the memorable Thanksgiving Days in the history 



CHATTANOOGA 143 

of the Union. Once more throughout the entire 
North General Grant was hailed as the nation's 
hero. 

Of his generalship in this battle, General Sherman 
said, "What Grant did was this: By my attacks 
so often on my left, he made Bragg believe our 
main attack was to be there, and so Bragg weakened 
his center to reenforce his right, and when Grant 
'divined' he had done this sufficiently, he hurled 
Thomas forward, as a battering ram, and smashed 
Bragg completely. It was a great victory — the 
neatest and cleanest battle I was ever in, and 
Grant deserves the credit of it." 



CHAPTER XV 

General of All the Armies 

The great battle of Chattanooga was scarcely 
over before General Grant sent General Sher- 
man to Knoxville, eighty miles away, to relieve 
General Burnside, who was besieged there by Long- 
street. Burnside was in desperate straits. Hear- 
ing that relief was coming, he held out, and on the 
3d of December, the day on which the last ration 
of food was issued to his exhausted troops, Sherman 
reached him, and the Confederates retired. 

When President Lincoln learned that Burn- 
side's army had been saved, he sent General Grant 
the following message : — 

" Understanding that your lodgment in Knoxville and at 
Chattanooga is now sure, I wish to tender you, and all under 
your command, my more than thanks, my profoundest grati- 
tude, for the skill, courage and perseverance with which you 
and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that im- 
portant object. God bless you all." 

Joy filled the country over the victory at Chatta- 
nooga. Congress adopted a resolution of thanks, 

144 



GENERAL OF ALL THE ARMIES 145 

and voted that a gold medal be presented to Gen- 
eral Grant in the name of the people of the United 
States. Several states also adopted resolutions of 
thanks ; and Jo Daviess County, General Grant's 
home county in Illinois, presented him with a 
diamond-hilted sword. The sword was afterwards 
known as the " Chattanooga sword." The scab- 
bard was of gold, and bore the names of all the 
battles Grant had won up to that time. 

In the latter part of January, 1864, General 
Grant obtained leave of absence for the purpose of 
visiting his oldest son, Fred, who was seriously ill 
in St. Louis. With his unfailing modesty, he did 
not take any of his staff officers, but went alone, 
and at the Lindell Hotel registered simply as 
"U. S. Grant, Nashville." 

The news of his arrival quickly spread, however, 
and soon the hotel lobby was thronged with people 
eager to catch a glimpse of the hero of Vicksburg 
and Chattanooga. In the evening he was sere- 
naded by a great throng, and when he appeared 
on the hotel balcony, he was greeted with tremen- 
dous and long-continued cheering. It was sup- 
posed he would make a speech. But he was still 
the man who preferred doing things to talking 
about them. He responded briefly : "I thank you 
for this honor. I cannot make a speech. It is 



146 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

something I have never done, and never intend to 
do, and I beg you to excuse me." 

After the serenade General Grant was invited 
to a banquet at which several hundred of the most 
prominent people of the city were present. He was 
again called upon for a speech. 

"Gentlemen," he replied, "it is impossible for 
me to do more than thank you." 

One incident of the banquet attracted consider- 
able attention. In honor of the occasion, the finest 
wines in St. Louis had been bought, regardless of 
cost. .When General Grant took his place at the 
table, his first act was to turn his wine glass up- 
side down, indicating that he would take no wine, 
and it remained so throughout the dinner. This 
action was a convincing reply to the tales of drink- 
ing that had been spread by certain of his enemies. 

It might be explained here how these tales 
originated. When Grant was a brigadier general, 
at Cairo, his headquarters were on the second floor 
of an old building. Sharing the room with him 
was an old army officer of the commissary depart- 
ment. This officer was given to drinking and to 
coarse talk, which Grant especially disliked. To 
escape his unwelcome neighbor, Grant moved his 
desk from the room into an adjoining hallway. 
The old officer interpreted this act, and Grant's 



GENERAL OF ALL THE ARMIES 147 

refusal to drink with him, as an insult, and began 
spreading the report that Grant had moved his 
desk into the hallway so that he might himself 
drink in secret. Unfortunately, on taking com- 
mand at Cairo, Grant had offended certain news- 
paper men by refusing them military information, 
and these men in revenge published the story 
told by the old officer. 

General Grant's victory at Vicksburg had re- 
sulted in his being given a larger command. The 
victory at Chattanooga carried him to the top of 
the ladder. 

On March 3, 1864, he received orders to report 
to Washington, to become lieutenant general, 
the commander of all the armies of the United 
States. 

General^ Grant set out for the national capital, 
to take this high command, with no more fuss than 
he had shown on going to St. Louis. His arrival 
in Washington was quite unnoticed. 

At fLve o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, March 8, 
it is related, an officer modestly attired was seen 
leading a four-year-old boy by the hand into Wil- 
lard's Hotel. Without speaking to any one, or 
paying any attention to the throng in the lobby, 
he registered as "U. S. Grant and son, Galena, 
Ills." Then quietly he entered the dining room 



148 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

and took a seat at a table. He had been at the 
table only a few minutes when a gentleman from 
New Orleans recognized him. Rising from his 
seat, the New Orleans man cordially shook hands 
with the General, calling him by name. In a 
moment the news flashed from chair to chair that 
General Grant was in the room. Hundreds of 
guests, senators, representatives, supreme court 
judges, and officers of the army, sprang from their 
seats, cheering and crowding round him. So great 
was the excitement and crowding that the General 
was unable to finish his meal, and presently he 
rose and left the dining room. In the hallway 
he encountered another throng of enthusiastic 
admirers, and finally he was compelled to with- 
draw to his private room. 

That evening the unwilling hero went through 
an experience still more trying. He visited the 
White House to report to President Lincoln, and 
found himself the central figure at one of the 
President's levees. 

The moment of the meeting of Grant and Lin- 
coln was a memorable one. On Grant's entrance 
there was an excited buzz in the crowded room, 
then a hush, and the throng fell back. The Gen- 
eral was in his worn field uniform. He was visibly 
embarrassed as he advanced. Lincoln met him 



GENERAL OF ALL THE ARMIES 149 

with warmly extended hand, and the tone of his 
voice meant far more than his simple words when 
he said, "I am glad to see you, General." 

Grant passed on into the East Room, and there 
the crowd almost flung itself upon him. He was 
cheered enthusiastically, and people struggled 
to grasp his hand. Finally he was forced to mount 
a sofa, so he could be seen. 

Altogether the hero of the occasion would much 
have preferred a battle. When he left the White 
House he breathed a deep sigh of relief, and 
exclaimed, 

"I hope that ends the show business!" 
The formal presentation to General Grant of 
his commission as lieutenant general was made 
the next day. It was another notable occasion. 
Such an event had not taken place since the time 
of General Washington. 

The presentation was made in the presence of 
the members of the cabinet and other prominent 
officers of the government. The speeches were 
simple — such as one would expect from the two 
truly great, simple, straightforward men who had 
risen from equally humble positions to the highest 
places in the land. 

Said President Lincoln: "General Grant, as 
the Nation's appreciation of what you have done, 



ISO ULYSSES S. GRANT 

and its reliance upon you for what remains to be 
done in the existing great struggle, you are now 
presented with this commission, constituting you 
Lieutenant General of the Army of the United 
States. With this high honor devolves upon you 
also a corresponding responsibility. As the coun- 
try herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain 
you. I scarcely need to add that with what I here 
speak for the Nation, goes my own hearty personal 
concurrence." 

General Grant replied : "Mr. President, I accept 
the commission with gratitude for the high honor 
conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that 
have fought on so many fields for our common 
country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to dis- 
appoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of 
the responsibilities now devolving upon me ; and 
I know that if they are all met, it will be due 
to those armies, and above all, to the favor of 
that Providence which leads both nations and 
men." 

With his customary energy, Grant on the fol- 
lowing day held a conference with General Meade, 
commanding the Army of the Potomac, seventy 
miles from Washington. Returning to Washing- 
ton, he declined an invitation to a military dinner 
in his honor by Mrs. Lincoln, and hastened back 



GENERAL OF ALL THE ARMIES 151 

to Nashville, to hand over to General Sherman the 
command of the Army of the Tennessee. 

There was a strong friendship between General 
Grant and General Sherman. It was based on 
manly, unselfish appreciation of each other's worth. 

On March 4, before leaving Nashville for Wash- 
ington, General Grant had written a letter to 
General Sherman in which this unselfishness was 
beautifully shown. It is doubtful whether an- 
other such letter was ever written by one military 
commander to another. 

After telling of his promotion to the chief com- 
mand, General Grant wrote in part as follows : — 

"While I have been eminently successful in this 
war, in at least gaining the confidence of the 
public, no one feels more than I how much of this 
success is due to the energy and skill ... of those 
whom it has been my good fortune to have occu- 
pying subordinate positions under me. . . . But 
what I want is to express my thanks to you and 
McPherson as the men to whom, above all others, 
I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. 
. . . How far your execution of whatever has 
been given you to do entitles you to the reward 
I am now receiving, you cannot know as well as 
I do. I feel all the gratitude this letter would 
express, giving it the most flattering construction." 



1 52 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

General Sherman's letter in reply was equally 
generous. It disclaimed any special credit, and 
declared that it was the confidence which Grant 
inspired in those under him that enabled them to 
play their part. 

"I believe you are as brave, patriotic and just as 
. . . Washington/' he wrote; "as honest, unself- 
ish and kindhearted as a man should be ; but the 
chief characteristic in your nature is the simple 
faith in success you have always manifested, which 
I can liken to nothing else than the faith a Christian 
has in his Saviour . . . when you have completed 
your best preparations, you go into battle without 
hesitation, as at Chattanooga — no doubts, no 
reserve; and I tell you it was this that made us 
act with confidence. I knew, wherever I was, that 
you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place, 
you would come, if alive. ..." 



CHAPTER XVI 

The Battle of the Wilderness 

Up to this time the eastern and western cam- 
paigns of the Northern armies had been carried 
on without any attempt at joint action. This had 
given the generals of the Confederacy a consider- 
able advantage. Grant planned that every divi- 
sion of the Union forces should now move simul- 
taneously, and with one final object in view — the 
capture of Richmond, the Confederate capital. 

From his conference with Sherman, General 
Grant returned to Washington. 

It was a magnificent army which Grant com- 
manded. In numbers — 600,000 men — it was 
the largest, up to that time, ever commanded by a 
single leader. It was scattered over a wide terri- 
tory, however; and the Army of the Potomac, 
with which Grant prepared to face the Confederate 
forces under Lee, numbered but 122,000. Grant 
estimated Lee's men to number 80,000, with the 
advantage of being in familiar country. 

153 



154 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

An amusing story is told of Grant and a young 
"dude" officer at this time. The General had 
made his headquarters at Culpeper Court House. 
One day, while on the road in a drizzling rain, 
accompanied only by his orderly, he saw a 
carriage approaching. It was drawn by a pair 
of fine horses and was escorted by mounted 
attendants. 

When near the General, the driver of the car- 
riage reined up. The carriage door opened and a 
dashing young officer, in an immaculate uniform, 
stepped gingerly out and saluted. He inquired 
if he was addressing General Grant, and stated 
that he wished to speak with him. 

"Certainly," replied the General. "Come and 
take a walk with me." 

The officer looked in consternation at his shining 
boots, at the muddy road, and up at the dripping 
clouds. But the General moved on, and there was 
nothing to do but to follow. Back and forth they 
strolled, splashing through the muddy pools, the 
General apparently quite unconscious of the sad 
result to the young officer's brilliant uniform. 
When the conversation was ended, the " drawing- 
room soldier's" appearance was much like that of 
a half-drowned peacock. His handsome plume 
was drooping, and his expensive riding boots were 






THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 155 

incrusted with mud to their tops. Back at the 
carriage the General left him. 

"You might set a little better example in your 
dress," he quietly suggested. 

Shortly after midnight, May 4, 1864, the Army 
of the Potomac, under General Grant, left camp 
and began to move on Richmond. By morning it 
had crossed to the south side of the Rapidan River. 
On the afternoon of the next day, the 5 th, it found 
itself confronted by General Lee. The first and 
long-awaited test between the two greatest leaders 
of the North and South was on. 

The scene of the encounter was known as the 
Wilderness. It was a table-land covered with a 
dense growth of scrub oak, dwarf pine, and 
hazel thickets, woven together by masses of wild 
vines. 

The battle was opened by General Warren's 
corps. When General Grant arrived on the scene, 
he ordered General Hancock to join Warren. 
There was no room for maneuvering, so dense was 
the jungle. The men worked their way forward 
as best they could, firing whenever they could 
see any one to fire at. The Confederates replied 
with crashing volleys, and soon the place was 
thick with smoke. Neither artillery nor cavalry 
could be used. 



156 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

In places the Union lines pushed forward slowly. 
In others they were forced back. But they re- 
fused to break, and when darkness came, General 
Lee realized that his efforts to crush Grant by one 
blow had failed, and he quietly withdrew. 

When the account of this first clash reached 
Washington, President Lincoln is reported to have 
said, 

" Any other commander the Army of the Potomac 
has had would have at once withdrawn his army 
over the Rapidan after that first day's reception." 

Instead of withdrawing from the Wilderness, 
General Grant ordered an attack all along the 
line at five o'clock on Friday morning. 

The second day's struggle began at the time set. 
The attack was opened on the Union left by General 
Hancock's division, and like the rolling of thunder, 
spread away to the west over a front of five miles. 

It was the battle of Thursday continued — the 
same storm of bullets at close range, the same 
desperate advancing and slow retiring through 
blinding smoke and the tangle of underbrush. 

General Hancock succeeded in forcing a section 
of the enemy's line a mile and a half to the rear, 
and captured many prisoners. The victory was 
followed by a repulse. The Confederates, reen- 
forced by Longstreet, began a charge with solid 



THE BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS 157 

masses of infantry, and Hancock was forced to 
fall back. 

All day the battle raged, the lines advancing 
here, and retiring there, without decisive success 
to either side. But by nightfall the army of Lee 
had had enough. When daylight came on Saturday, 
it disclosed the fact that the Confederate general 
had fallen back behind his intrenchments. 

And so ended the great battle of the Wilderness. 

The two days' struggle, said General Grant, 
"saw more desperate fighting than had ever been 
known on this continent." Again was shown 
splendid courage, by both the men of the North 
and the men of the South. 



CHAPTER XVII 

Spottsylvania 

When Grant discovered that General Lee had 
retired behind his prepared intrenchments, he 
decided to leave the Confederate army there, and 
move on in a sideways fashion to Spottsylvania. 
He began the movement during the night. 

He arrived at Spottsylvania the next day, Sun- 
day, only to find that the enemy had preceded him 
by a shorter road, and was again across his path, 
ready to offer battle. 

The country here was much the same as that 
in the Wilderness — forest, and a tangled growth 
of underbrush. It was Tuesday, the ioth of May, 
when the Union forces were in position, and the 
battle began. 

The righting proved even more bloody than that 
of the Wilderness. It began at one o'clock in the 
afternoon, and until nightfall the men of the two 
armies surged backward and forward through blind- 
ing clouds of smoke. The roar of cannon and the 
crashing of musketry were terrific and continuous. 

158 



SPOTTSYLVANIA 159 

The carnage ceased with the coming of darkness, 
but grimly each side held to its positions. There 
was no fighting on Wednesday. The two armies 
paused to take breath for a still more desperate 
struggle. Lee was determined that Grant should 
be hurled back. Grant was just as determined to 
push ahead. And in spite of their terrible losses, 
the Union men caught his spirit, and were deter- 
mined to do their part, although it meant death. 

During Wednesday night General Grant moved 
Hancock's corps to a position before the strongest 
point of the Confederate center. At four o'clock 
in the morning of Thursday, according to plan, 
Hancock's men attacked with a rush. They suc- 
ceeded in getting over the enemy's breastworks. 
A desperate hand-to-hand struggle followed. The 
men of the two armies were so intermingled that 
they could not fire. Instead, they used their rifles 
as clubs. 

The loss of life was appalling. At the point 
where Hancock's men went over the Confederate 
breastworks the dead and wounded lay in heaps. 

Hancock's men at last captured the position, 
making many prisoners. But scarcely had they 
done so, when fresh Confederate troops made a 
determined effort to drive them out. 

And so the terrible conflict continued throughout 



160 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

the entire day, and on into the night. So heavy was 
the fire that in places large trees were cut through 
and brought to the ground by rifle bullets alone. 

Thursday night ended the fight, with the two 
armies holding their main positions. The rain 
which began on that day continued until Tuesday, 
the 17th, and the battle meantime was not resumed. 

Grant again determined to leave Lee behind 
his intrenchments, and move on secretly, if possible. 
He began the maneuver on the night of the 20th. 
Once again the Confederate general discovered 
the plan, again moved by a shorter road, and in- 
terposed. But Lee's third attempt to block Grant 
was unsuccessful, and once more the Union army 
moved on toward Richmond. 

On the 31st of May General Sheridan and his 
cavalry division, the Union advance guard, arrived 
at Cold Harbor. Here, almost within sight of 
Richmond, Lee's army again appeared. Grant 
had ordered Sheridan to hold the crossing at Cold 
Harbor Tavern at all costs, and Sheridan dis- 
mounted his men and intrenched. In the morning 
the infantry arrived, and the two armies met in 
another terrific battle. 

General Lee fought with desperation. Grant 
ordered a general assault, which failed. He spent 
a day in burying the dead and in posting fresh 



SPOTTSYLVANIA 161 

troops, and on the third day ordered another assault. 
This also failed, with great loss to both sides. 

Most commanders would have been discouraged. 
But not Grant ! Once more he left Lee waiting 
for a fresh attack, and moved off sideways. On 
the night of the 12 th of June he transferred his 
troops across the Chickahominy River and began 
a swift march to the southeast. His plan was to 
make a wide circuit and approach Richmond from 
the south, also seizing Petersburg if possible. 

The maneuver was a splendid piece of strategy. 
So rapidly was it carried out that General Lee did 
not know what had become of Grant and the 
Union army. For two days he lost all track of 
them, and telegraphed to his generals at different 
points, "Where is Grant's army?" "Find Grant's 
army." 

The movement was a complete success. It 
placed the Union army in a position to attack 
Richmond from the rear, and it cut General Lee's 
southern lines of communication. 

On June 14 General Grant telegraphed to 
Washington : 

" Our forces commence crossing the James to-day. The 
enemy shows no signs of having brought his troops to the 
south side of Richmond. I will have Petersburg secured if 
possible before they get in in much force." 



162 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

But disappointments were again to come. They 
began with the failure to capture Petersburg. An 
attack was made by the Union advance guard 
late in the day, and was partially successful. But 
the officer directly in command did not drive the 
attack home, and during the night large Confed- 
erate reinforcements arrived. As a consequence, 
a siege became necessary. 

Once more critics of General Grant began to 
find fault. "The man from the West was success- 
ful until he met a real general," some of them said. 

Petersburg, twenty miles south of Richmond, 
was strongly fortified, and the siege dragged on 
slowly. A mine similar to those driven beneath 
the defenses of Vicksburg was planned and tun- 
neled. It was charged with powder and the time 
set for the explosion. Near by, troops stood ready 
to rush into the opening made in the breastworks. 
The hour came, and passed. There was no explo- 
sion. 

Two brave men of a Pennsylvania regiment, 
Jacob Douty and Henry Reese, — names to be 
remembered, — volunteered to enter the tunnel. 
They did so, and found that the fuse had gone out. 
They relighted it. A few minutes later there was 
a rumble like an earthquake, and a great mass of 
earth shot into the air. When the smoke and dust 



SPOTTSYLVANIA 163 

had cleared, an opening in the fortifications sixty 
feet wide was revealed. 

The attacking column rushed in. But through 
some misunderstanding the men did not push their 
way on into the interior of the fortifications. 
While they faltered, the defenders rallied, and 
the attackers were compelled to retire with great 
loss. 

General Grant was extremely disappointed. 
While trying to learn the reason for the delay of the 
inner attack, he climbed the breastworks and ran 
along the outer wall, fully exposed to a heavy fire. 

When news of this failure to take Petersburg 
became public, the people of the Union were again 
greatly depressed. It was believed that, like all 
the generals who had gone before him in the 
eastern campaigns, General Grant also was a 
failure. Newspapers began charging him with 
lack of ability, and with throwing away the lives 
of his men. 

Some people went so far as to call him " Grant 
the Butcher.'' Nothing could have been more 
unjust. Grant could not bear the sight of blood. 
Suffering affected him so keenly that he could not 
look on the wounded in the battlefield. He could 
not endure to see an animal abused. 

To add to Grant's perplexities, the presidential 



1 64 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

election was on, and the General's failure to end 
the war quickly was being used as an argument 
against the reelection of Lincoln. The argument 
was advanced by those who were in favor of making 
peace at any price, and allowing slavery to continue. 
Finally, the generals of several Union armies in 
the west had not been carrying out their campaigns 
successfully. 

During the month of August the city of Wash- 
ington was in a panic. It was believed that Confeder- 
ate reinforcements had been sent to General Early, 
in the Shenandoah Valley, for a raid on the capital. 
The tide of misfortune turned. Early was de- 
feated by General Sheridan; General Sherman 
captured Atlanta; and when the election came, 
President Lincoln was reelected. 

During all these days of trial and disappoint- 
ment and faultfinding, General Grant remained the 
same — quiet, kindly, and confident that things 
would come out all right in the end. His head- 
quarters were at City Point, a strip of land at the 
junction of the Appomattox and James rivers, a 
few miles from Petersburg. From this spot he 
could keep in touch with the armies of the Potomac 
and the James, and also with Washington. 

The siege dragged on; and when winter came, 
Mrs. Grant joined her husband in the little slat- 



SPOTTSYLVANIA 165 

sided house that had been built for him. Friends 
from Illinois came to see him, and were much sur- 
prised to find him the same quiet man they had 
known in private life. 

President Lincoln also came down to City Point 
frequently, and would drop in at the headquarters 
unannounced, with a "Good morning, gentlemen." 

Grant was at City Point when the news of the 
completion of Sherman's march to the sea reached 
him. The occasion brought another proof of his 
unselfishness. He wrote his father, Jesse Grant, 
asking him to start a subscription to present Mrs. 
Sherman with a furnished house in Cincinnati. 
As his own contribution, he sent five hundred 
dollars. 

"It is the greatest march in history," he wrote, 
in generous praise. "No other man than Sherman 
could have marched so far in an enemy's country, 
and be stronger at the finish than at the start. 
He is a greater general than I am." 



CHAPTER XVIII 
The Fall of Richmond 

During the winter General Grant completed 
arrangements for important doings as soon as the 
roads were passable in the spring. On the 28th 
of March, on board the steamer River Queen, at 
City Point, he held a memorable consultation with 
President Lincoln and General Sherman, and told 
of his plans. 

"At this moment," he explained, "Sheridan is 
crossing the James River from the north by a 
pontoon bridge below City Point. I have a large 
and well-appointed force of cavalry with which I 
propose to strike the South Side and Danville 
railways. These are the only roads left over which 
Lee can supply his army. I intend to continue 
my movement to the left until Lee is entirely cut 
off from the Confederacy. He will be obliged 
either to surrender or abandon Richmond. If he 
comes out of his lines to fight, I shall defeat him. 
My only fear is that he will slip away to join John- 
ston in the south. I shall start with no distinct 

166 



THE FALL OF RICHMOND 167 

view other than to prevent Lee from following 
Sheridan; but I shall be along myself, and take 
advantage of anything that turns up." 

Sherman spoke. "Let him join Johnston if he 
wishes. My army at Goldsboro is strong enough 
to whip him and Johnston combined, provided you 
can come up in a day or two. If Lee will remain at 
Richmond another week, I can march to Burkeville, 
and Lee will starve inside his own lines, or come out 
and fight us." 

President Lincoln asked a question. 

"How many men has Lee?" 

"About sixty-five thousand; but large numbers 
are deserting," replied General Grant. 

There was a sorrowful expression on the Presi- 
dent's face. "Can we not end this thing without 
another battle?" he asked sadly. 

Both Grant and Sherman shook their heads. 
They believed one more battle at least must be 
fought. 

"There has been enough bloodshed! We must 
avoid another battle!" exclaimed Lincoln. 

"We cannot control that. It rests with the 
enemy," declared Sherman. 

General Grant agreed. He then concluded, 

"If Lee will wait where he is for a few days, I 
will have my army so disposed that if he attempts 



168 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

to join Johnston I will be at his heels, and he 
cannot escape." 

Two days later, under Grant's immediate com- 
mand, the Army of the Potomac began to move. 
Sheridan also pushed ahead, and was soon at Five 
Forks. His orders were to threaten Lee's extreme 
right, and if possible, to draw out and flank the 
Confederates at that point. 

Word of Sheridan's intentions reached Lee. He 
hurried to his right wing with reinforcements, 
and with desperate courage met Sheridan on the 
first of April. Sheridan was not to be forced back, 
however, and at dusk his men went over the Con- 
federate works, and captured six thousand prisoners. 

"Good!" said General Grant, when the news 
came. Then he ordered an attack by his whole 
army. A terrific cannonade opened from one end 
of the line to the other. General Weitzel, on the 
north side of the James River, was ordered to ad- 
vance against Richmond, and to enter the city if 
the Confederates withdrew. General Wright and 
General Parke were directed to make an assault on 
Petersburg at four o'clock the next morning. 
General Humphreys and General Ord, of the Army 
of the James, on the south side of the James, were 
to attack the moment they saw the enemy's lines 
weaken. 



THE FALL OF RICHMOND 169 

At four o'clock that Sunday morning, according 
to plan, the blue-clad columns of Parke and Wright 
moved out of their trenches. Under a heavy fire 
from the enemy they went steadily on. They 
forced their way through an abatis of trees, and 
pressing ahead despite heavy losses, gained the 
parapets, and threw themselves into the enemy's 
outer works. The Confederates fell back precipi- 
tately to their inner defenses, and the assailing 
columns made nearly three thousand prisoners. 

Meanwhile General Ord and General Humphreys 
had attacked the enemy's intrenchments at another 
point. These also were captured. When the good 
news reached Grant, he mounted his horse and 
rode to the front to join the troops inside the 
fortifications. 

General Lee made desperate efforts to regain 
his line of outer works. He sent his men again 
and again to the attack. But in vain. Then he 
called up General Longstreet with his division 
from the defenses of Richmond. 

When General Grant heard this he smiled, and 
directed General Weitzel to watch his chance for 
a dash into the Confederate capital. 

The people of Richmond heard the heavy cannon- 
ading that Sunday morning, but they had grown 
accustomed to the sound of guns, and paid little 



170 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

attention. They had come to believe that General 
Lee was invincible. And so, while Lee's men were 
righting with the courage of despair, the churches 
of Richmond were filling with their usual Sunday 
throng. 

The largest and most fashionable congregation 
had gathered in St. Paul's, for Jefferson Davis, 
the president of the Confederacy, worshiped there. 
A hymn had been given out, when a messenger 
hastily tiptoed up the aisle to the president's pew. 
He handed the president a message. 

President Davis read the note, and his face 
paled. 

It was from General Lee, — 

"The enemy has broken my line in three places. Rich- 
mond must be evacuated to-night." 

Quietly but hurriedly the Confederate president 
left the church. He hastened to his office and 
gave orders for the immediate removal of the seat 
of government to Danville. 

The tragic news quickly spread through the city. 
A reign of terror followed. Warehouses were set 
on fire to destroy their contents, and, the blaze 
spreading, the whole center of the city was soon 
in flames. The people began to flee, mad with 
fright. The rough element began plundering 
houses and stores. 



THE FALL OF RICHMOND 171 

The smoke and glare in the sky were seen by 
General Weitzel, and at eight o'clock the following 
morning he and his men entered the city. The 
Northern soldiers were followed by a corps of 
colored troops, who jubilantly sang their marching 
song, 

"John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the grave, 
But his soul goes marching on." 

About the same time General Grant was entering 
Petersburg. So close were his troops on the heels 
of the flying enemy that he could have turned his 
cannon on packed masses of retreating men. But 
he had not the heart nor the wish to do so. 

In expectation of the retreat, General Grant 
already had sent Sheridan along the south side of 
the Appomattox River, to seize the road to Dan- 
ville ahead of Lee, and prevent his escape in that 
direction. 



CHAPTER XIX 

The Surrender of Lee 

The roads were in a wretched condition for 
marching. But that now made no difference to the 
men of the Union army. The end of the war was 
in sight, and they marched jubilantly in pursuit of 
the flying enemy, singing, shouting, and laughing. 

That evening two soldiers in rebel uniform, who 
were brought in as prisoners by men of Grant's 
column, said they wished to see the commanding 
general. They proved to be Union soldiers from 
Sheridan's army, in disguise, and brought a mes- 
sage which one had carried in his mouth. The 
message was from General Sheridan, and read : 

"It is of the utmost importance for the success of the 
move now being made that you come at once to these head- 
quarters. Meade has given his part of the army orders to 
move in such a manner that Lee may break through and 
escape." 

General Grant ordered a fresh horse and set off 
at once, without even waiting for a cup of coffee. 

172 



THE SURRENDER OF LEE 173 

Although Sheridan's headquarters were not more 
than ten miles away, the General had to make a 
thirty-mile detour, in order to pass round the 
enemy's lines. 

Probably no single act of General Grant's career 
better showed his vigorous, soldierly qualities than 
this hasty thirty-mile night ride through an enemy's 
country, entirely unaccompanied. 

He reached Sheridan about midnight, saw 
General Meade, and countermanded the latter's 
orders. He explained to Meade that the impor- 
tant object was not the occupation of Richmond, as 
General Meade seemed to think, but the capture 
of Lee's army. 

With the coming of morning, the retreat of the 
Confederates and pursuit by the Northern armies 
continued. At Sailor's Creek a sharp fight took 
place on the 6th, resulting in the defeat of the 
Confederates with a loss of 1700 prisoners. 
General Sheridan, seeing the possibility of success, 
ended his report of the affair by saying, 

" If the thing is pressed, I think Lee will surrender." 

Grant forwarded the dispatch to President 
Lincoln, who immediately replied, 

"Let the thing be pressed." 



174 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

The pursuit continued, and on the 7 th it became 
apparent that the Confederate army was going to 
pieces. Grant became convinced that Lee would 
be willing to consider a proposal to surrender. 
With his usual kindheartedness he began pondering 
as to how he could bring about that end with the 
least humiliation to his fallen foe. 

From his headquarters on the piazza of a little 
tavern at Farmville he sent General Lee the fol- 
lowing note under a flag of truce : 

"The results of the last week must convince you of the 
hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of 
Northern Virginia in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and 
regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of 
any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender 
of that portion of the Confederate States Army known as the 
Army of Northern Virginia." 

An answer came within an hour asking terms of 
surrender. General Grant's response to this was 
the statement that there was but one basis upon 
which peace could be restored — a complete surren- 
der of the Confederate forces. 

Lee held a council of war that night, the 8th of 
April. Around the camp fire were the members of 
his staff, including General Longstreet, General 
Fitzhugh Lee, and General Gordon. Lee read 



THE SURRENDER OF LEE 175 

the correspondence he had exchanged with General 
Grant, and said, 

"I am averse to surrendering, but the situation 
demands it. My desire is now to avoid any 
further bloodshed." 

Some of the younger generals did not share his 
views. After much discussion General Gordon 
was selected to lead a forlorn-hope assault on 
Sheridan's cavalry, in the hope of forcing a way 
of escape. The attempt was made early Sunday 
morning, the 9th. For a time the attack appeared 
to be succeeding. Then suddenly the Union 
cavalry parted, and the attacking Confederates 
beheld beyond the cavalry a solid wall of blue- 
coated infantry. Their last hope was gone ! 

A few hours later General Grant received from 
General Lee a message stating that he was willing 
to discuss terms of surrender. They met at a 
small farmhouse between the two armies. When 
Grant entered, the room was partly filled with his 
own officers. On one side of the room General 
Lee sat in silence, with Colonel Marshall, his 
secretary, beside him. 

The Confederate general was attired in a spotless 
new uniform, as though prepared for a grand re- 
view. Grant's appearance was in striking con- 
trast. He wore the uniform of a private soldier, 



176 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

except for the shoulder straps of a lieutenant 
general. The uniform was stained and splashed 
with mud, and his trousers were tucked into muddy 
boots. 

Without hesitation the Union general walked 
to Lee, and they shook hands cordially. Grant's 
thoughtfulness for the feelings of others was never 
better shown. Instead of at once taking up the 
painful matter in hand, he spoke of their former 
acquaintance in the Mexican War, and of the 
curious fact that not until this moment had they 
met again. It was Lee who finally brought up the 
purpose of their coming together. General Grant 
then suggested that the terms of surrender be put 
into writing. 

A small table was brought, and in pencil Grant 
wrote the terms, and handed the paper to Lee. 

The final paragraph of this first draft ran thus : — 

"The arms, artillery, and public property to be parked and 
stacked and turned over to the officer appointed by me to 
receive them. This will not embrace the side arms of the 
officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each 
officer and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not 
to be disturbed by the United States so long as they observe 
their parole and the laws in force where they reside." 

The terms were extremely generous. General 
Lee did not fail to appreciate the fact. 



THE SURRENDER OF LEE 177 

"This will have a most happy effect upon my 
army," he said, referring particularly to the re- 
lease of the horses of the cavalrymen, which were 
the private property of the troopers. Grant's idea 
was that the men could ride their horses back to 
their farms, and use them in their spring farm work. 

The terms of the surrender being agreed upon, 
a copy was made in ink, and it was duly signed. 

That evening other old West Point classmates 
and comrades of the Mexican War came from the 
Confederate lines to thank Grant for his courtesies. 
He met them all as if nothing had happened. 
Hooking his arm in that of General Longstreet, 
and calling him by an old army nickname, he 
said, "Pete, let's return to the happy old days by 
playing a game of 'brag.'" 

Thus, then and there, on the field of Appomattox, 
General Grant began his great work of reconcilia- 
tion and reconstruction. Every order he issued 
showed the same spirit. He advised against all 
signs of exultation during the actual surrender. 
"The war is ended," he said. "Lee and his men 
are fellow-citizens, of the same nation, and are 
not to be humiliated." 

General Grant's message conveying the momen- 
tous news of the surrender to Washington was 
characteristically plain and brief: 



178 ULYSSES S. GRANT 



Reproduced, by permission of D. Appleton and Company, from Frederick T. Hill'$ 
" On the Trail of Grant and Lee." 



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Copyright, 1911, by D. Appleton & Company. 



CHAPTER XX 

The Death of Lincoln 

General Grant reached Washington on the 
evening of the 13th of April. Like the rest of 
the country, the capital was ablaze with enthusiasm 
over the surrender of Lee, and the belief that the 
war was at an end. Flags fluttered everywhere, 
and processions marched about the streets singing 
and cheering. Every mention of the name of 
Grant was the signal for an outburst of applause. 

In the midst of all this joyful excitement General 
Grant arrived in his usual quiet way. He slipped 
into Willard's Hotel and registered. Few persons 
knew he was in the city until the following morning, 
when notice of his arrival appeared in the papers. 

When he left the hotel he paid no attention to 
the crowds, and their demands for a speech. He 
proceeded to the War Department and at once 
set to work upon plans for cutting down the heavy 
cost of the war. He believed that the conflict 
was over, and that the $43,000,000 a day which the 
country had been paying out should be immediately 
179 



180 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

reduced. He stopped the making of arms, can- 
celed the charters of useless vessels, and cut down 
the bills for army supplies. 

General Grant spent a busy day at his office, 
and that evening left with Mrs. Grant for Burling- 
ton, N.J., where his older children were attending 
school. In hastening away he had to decline an 
invitation from President Lincoln to attend the 
theater with him that evening. 

General Grant's love for his children, and his 
impatience to see them, very possibly saved his 
life. 

On the train late that night he was handed a 
telegram. It bore appalling news! 

" The President has been assassinated. Return 
at once." 

General Grant returned to Washington by special 
train. The city was almost in a panic. An at- 
tempt had also been made upon the life of Secretary 
of State Seward, and it was feared that the plot 
included the assassination of General Grant. 

Had Grant been slain with Lincoln, the nation 
would have been thrown into confusion. When it 
was known that the General was safe, Washington 
and the whole country were greatly relieved and 
thankful. With the strong hand of the Lieutenant 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN jgi 

General at the helm in the capital, it was felt that 
the nation was safe. 

The assassination of President Lincoln was a 
great calamity, yet it had little effect on the winding 
up of the war, thanks to the wisdom of General 
Orant His task, however, was made a much more 
difficult one. Although the murder was recognized 
as the act of a fanatic, and was as much condemned 
by the people of the South as by the people of the 
North there was much anger and resentment in 
the North against the South. Extremists de- 
manded that the whole South be punished in some 
way. Secretary of War Stanton was one of the 
most bitter on the subject. 

But with the same cool judgment and self-re- 
straint that he had shown while fighting the Con- 
federacy, Grant now opposed all harsh demands 
or revenge. He insisted on carrying out the 
terms of surrender he had granted to the army of 
General Lee and the similar terms which General 
Sherman had offered General Johnston and his 
cirmy. 

The surrender of General Johnston was the cause 
of a particularly sharp difference of opinion be- 
tween Secretary of War Stanton and General Grant. 

ItllT'-Z Wmt S ° far aS t0 Ch ^ General 
Sherman with treason in showing sympathy for 



182 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

the South. General Grant warmly defended Sher- 
man. Finally Grant was ordered by the Secretary 
of War to proceed to the front and take charge of 
Sherman's army and the negotiations for the sur- 
render of Johnston. Grant went to the front, 
but he refused to humiliate Sherman by removing 
him from his command. He kept in the back- 
ground until arrangements for the surrender had 
been completed. This thoughtfulness for Sher- 
man's feelings was greatly appreciated by him, 
and bound the two men in yet closer friendship. 

When Johnston had surrendered, General Grant 
returned to Washington to complete details for the 
disbanding of the Union armies. He was warned 
that he was in danger of sharing President Lincoln's 
fate, but he gave little heed to it, and went quietly 
about his business, without guards. 

On the 17th of May, a little more than a month 
after Lincoln's death, an order was issued for a 
grand review of the Union armies in the east, 
before the men should disperse to their homes. It 
was to be the greatest military review in history. 
The number of men in line would be greater than 
the combined armies of Napoleon, Cromwell, and 
Caesar. 

Great preparations were made in Washington. 
Grandstands were erected, flags and bunting 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN 183 

streamed from every building, and soon the city 
was a blaze of holiday gayety. The streets were 
thronged with people in holiday dress, soldiers 
were everywhere, and officers in brilliant uniforms 
dashed hither and thither on handsome chargers. 

The 23d of May proved a perfect day for the 
review. A stand had been erected in front of the 
White House, and at an early hour President 
Johnson and his party took their places there. 
On the President's right sat General Grant and 
Secretary of War Stanton. On his left were seats 
for General Sherman, General Meade, and other 
high officers. Around them were ranks of ladies 
in the wide hoopskirts of those days. 

At nine o'clock a signal cannon boomed. A few 
minutes later down the winding avenue appeared 
a broad tide of blue, and shimmering steel, and 
tossing manes. It was the cavalry of the Army 
of the Potomac. With General Meade at their 
head, the troopers clattered by, seven miles of 
tossing heads, clanking scabbards, stained blue 
coats and gleaming sword blades. It was a thrill- 
ing picture. 

After the cavalry came the infantry, a river of 
bayonets and men in blue that rilled the street 
from curb to curb as far as the eye could see. The 
uniforms were dusty and worn, and the faces were 



x84 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

brown and weather-beaten. At intervals fluttered 
the tattered battle flags beneath which so many 
thousands had given up their lives, that just such 
a joyous occasion as this might be realized. 

As the columns passed the reviewing stand, the 
men threw their muskets to the "present," in honor 
of their beloved commander. It was not the new 
President they saw, but the quiet little man beside 
him, who had led them to victory and to the end 
of the long-drawn war. 

Hour after hour the stream poured by, one of the 
most magnificent spectacles that human eyes had 
ever beheld, until the Army of the Potomac, 
eighty thousand strong, had marched on "from 
war into peace." 

The next day came the armies of the west, the 
grim, dingy, war-worn soldiers of Sherman, who had 
fought at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, and 
who claimed Grant as their own. Most of them had 
marched three thousand miles ; some of them were 
said to have carried their muskets seven thousand 
miles. Their artillery rumbled after, six guns 
abreast; then their ambulances and commissariat 
wagons. They too passed on into peace and into 
history. 

Only once during the two days of the great re- 
view did General Grant allow the people more than 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN 185 

a glimpse of him. On the evening of the first 
day he mounted his horse and rode down the avenue 
on a business trip. He was recognized, and the 
crowds that thronged the streets broke into a roar 
of cheering. He swept by at a gallop, and the noise 
of the shouting announced his coming a half mile 
in advance. 

The disbanding of the great Union army was not 
the only military problem now confronting General 
Grant. During the years of the war an effort had 
been made by Louis Napoleon of France to create 
a monarchy in Mexico, with Maximilian of Austria 
as emperor. General Grant believed that the es- 
tablishment of a European power across the Rio 
Grande would perpetually threaten the peace of 
the United States. He determined to interfere, 
and an army under General Sheridan was sent to 
the Mexican border. The action had the desired 
effect. The French troops were withdrawn from 
Mexico, and the whole scheme of establishing an 
American empire came to an end in the execu- 
tion by the Mexicans of Maximilian, the would-be 
emperor. 

When the dispersal of the Union armies was well 
under way, General Grant sought the change and 
rest of a short furlough. He accepted an invitation 
to be present at the close of the academic year 



186 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

at West Point. On his way there he stopped off 
in New York. Ten years before he had landed in 
that city from the Pacific coast, penniless and 
practically unknown. Now cannon roared him a 
welcome, and people swarmed about him wherever 
he went. From the moment he left the train 
crowds thronged around him, cheering, and shout- 
ing for a speech. He only bowed and smiled, and 
passed on. At the Astor House he was called upon 
by the officials of the city, and fifteen thousand 
people passed by him and shook his hand. 

His return to West Point was as much a contrast 
as his return to New York. He had left the 
Academy a brevet second lieutenant ; he returned 
as the commander of all the forces of the United 
States, and recognized as one of the world's greatest 
generals. 

From West Point General Grant went to Chicago. 
At every station along the way crowds gathered 
to see him pass. Chicago's reception was a repeti- 
tion of New York's. Bands serenaded him, crowds 
mobbed him, and orators delivered speeches 
lauding him. 

An interesting incident in Chicago was General 
Grant's riding in a procession on the old " clay- 
bank" horse that had carried him through the 
battle of Fort Donelson. 






THE DEATH OF LINCOLN 187 

In two weeks General Grant was back in Wash- 
ington. There was need of him. The President 
and his Cabinet had determined to arrest the Con- 
federate generals Lee and Johnston on a charge of 
treason, in spite of the protection guaranteed 
them by Grant. The man who had fought them 
so determinedly hastened to their defense. 

General Grant's generous attitude toward the 
whole South was very clearly shown in a letter 
to his wife written a few weeks previous to this 
date. 

."The people are anxious to see peace restored, " 
he wrote. "The suffering that must exist in the 
South, even with the war ending now, will be be- 
yond conception. People who talk of further 
retaliation and punishment, except of political 
leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering en- 
dured already, or they are heartless and unfeeling, 
and wish to stay at home, out of danger, while the 
punishment is being inflicted." 

General Grant was well fitted for the role of 
peacemaker which he was destined to play. His 
early life had been spent in a town that was half 
Northern and half Southern ; at West Point and 
in the army he had associated with many young 
Southerners. And his wife was a "daughter 
of the South." He had gone into war without 



1 88 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

hate, believing that the Southern people were as 
honestly convinced of the justice of their cause 
as were the people of the North, and yet himself 
convinced that they were mistaken. 

On the other hand, President Johnson, Presi- 
dent Lincoln's successor, was an extremist, a man 
who hated the "aristocracy of the South." His 
unexpected rise to the presidency had turned his 
head, and his first resolution had been "to make 
treason odious" — to punish the South severely. 

General Grant carried his protest against the ar- 
rest of General Lee and General Johnston before 
the Cabinet. "The people of the North do not 
wish to inflict torture on the people of the South," 
he declared. 

The President was not to be moved. " When can 
these men be tried?" he demanded. 

"Never," replied General Grant resolutely, 
"unless they violate their parole." 

President Johnson demanded to know by what 
right a military commander could interfere " to pro- 
tect an archtraitor from the law"? 

It 4 was one of the few occasions on which General 
Grant was known to have become angry. 

"As general, it is none of my business what you 
or Congress do with General Lee or other com- 
manders," he responded sharply. "You may do 



THE DEATH OF LINCOLN 189 

as you please about civil rights, confiscation of 
property; that does not come into my province. 
But a general commanding troops has certain 
responsibilities, and duties, and powers, which 
are supreme. ... I have made certain terms with 
Lee — the best and only terms. If I had told him 
and his army . . . that they would be open to 
arrest, trial, and execution for treason, Lee would 
never have surrendered, and we should have lost 
many lives in destroying him. Now, my terms of 
surrender were according to military law, and so 
long as General Lee observes his parole I will never 
consent to his arrest. I will resign the command 
of the army rather than execute any order directing 
me to arrest Lee, or any of his commanders, so 
long as they obey the laws." 

This declaration of General Grant was successful, 
and the arrest of Generals Lee and Johnston was 
never again suggested. 



CHAPTER XXI 
President Grant 

Early in July, accompanied by Mrs. Grant, 
General Grant left Washington on a vacation trip. 
He visited Boston, where he was given a great re- 
ception in historic Faneuil Hall, then toured Maine 
and Quebec, and passed on through Canada west- 
ward. During the journey through Canada, the 
Canadians, some fifty thousand of whom had 
fought on the side of the North in the great war, 
greeted the General almost as enthusiastically as 
the citizens of his own country. 

The chief event of the holiday trip, however, 
was the welcome given him in his home town, 
Galena, Illinois. The town, which was crowded 
with visitors from all over the state, was gay with 
flags, and over the principal street two great trium- 
phal arches had been built. One of these bore the 
amusing and unusual words : 



GENERAL, THE SIDEWALK IS BUILT. 



The explanation was as follows : During the 
previous year, when some one had suggested to 

190 



PRESIDENT GRANT 191 

Grant the possibility of his becoming a candidate 
for the presidency, he had replied, "I am not a 
candidate for any office, but I would like to be 
mayor of Galena long enough to fix the sidewalks, 
especially the one reaching my house." 

Not only had the new sidewalk been built, but a 
new home for the General and his family had also 
been provided, a house completely furnished and 
ready for occupancy — a generous and beautiful 
recognition of his services by his "home town." 

General Grant spent several weeks in Galena, 
greatly enjoying the quiet village life, after the 
long strife and hardships of the war and the bustle 
at Washington. On Sunday he delighted to walk 
with Mrs. Grant to the little church, and to sit in 
the little hard-board pew they had occupied four 
years before. 

On his way eastward General Grant visited his 
father and mother at Covington. During his stay 
he one morning took a team to drive over to Bethel, 
the home to which he had returned when on his 
first furlough from West Point. Word of his com- 
ing preceded him in some way. A committee of 
prominent citizens was hurriedly appointed to go 
out and meet the distinguished visitor. They 
looked for a party of officers in handsome uniforms, 
and when they had gone some miles and had seen 



102 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

no signs of such a cavalcade, they decided that 
the party must have taken another road. While 
they were discussing the matter, there approached 
a smallish man driving a light surrey. They 
stopped him and asked, "Did you hear anything 
of General Grant as you came along? " 

"Yes; he's on the way," replied the stranger, 
and passed on, chuckling. Of course it was the 
General himself. It was a discomfited reception 
committee that arrived in town some time after 
their guest. 

When General Grant returned to Washington he 
found himself in the midst of new problems. Great 
questions were being discussed — the huge public 
debt left by the war, the protection and enfran- 
chisement of the negroes in the South, and the many 
puzzling problems of " reconstruction. " Also, poli- 
ticians were planning for the next presidential 
election. 

President Johnson, Stanton, Seward, Sumner, 
and many others were working to secure the nomi- 
nation. Johnson endeavored to use General Grant 
to forward his interests. When Grant's words 
and acts promised to help him, the President ap- 
propriated their credit to himself ; when they did 
not, he distorted them, and secretly sought to 
undermine and discredit the General. Previously 



PRESIDENT GRANT 193 

he had called for the punishment of the South for 
the war; now, believing the South might help 
him to win the presidency, he was granting extraor- 
dinary and dangerous privileges to the conquered 
states, without the sanction of Congress. 

This course greatly added to the difficulties of 
the situation. And as the South was still under 
martial law, the weight of the burden fell on 
the shoulders of the commander in chief, General 
Grant. As always, he bore his troubles uncom- 
plainingly. 

All through the summer of 1866 President John- 
son continued to seek the support of the South, 
hoping to win its backing, and at the same time 
please the Democratic party in the North. Finally 
he brought upon himself a storm of denunciation. 
He sought to put himself right before the people 
of the North, and made a trip to Chicago, seemingly 
for the purpose of laying the foundation stone of 
the Douglas monument, but really for the oppor- 
tunity of making speeches. In order to appear to 
have the support of Grant, he requested the Gen- 
eral to accompany him. 

The result was unexpected. The President be- 
gan his tour late in August, speaking first at Balti- 
more and Philadelphia. And at once it was evident 
that not the President, but General Grant was the 



194 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

chief attraction to the public. Everywhere the 
heartiest cheers were for him. Wherever he went 
the people cried, " Grant ! Grant ! " 

As the President went westward the receptions 
grew cooler for the chief executive and warmer for 
the general. Frequently when Grant did not show 
himself in response to calls, the crowds insisted, 
and continued shouting his name until he appeared. 
In Cleveland, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis 
it was the same. The meetings merely served as 
popular receptions for Grant. 

During the bitter struggle which continued 
between President Johnson and Congress, over the 
President's alleged favoritism toward the South, 
and which finally resulted in the impeachment trial 
of President Johnson, General Grant remained 
unchanged. He was impartial and conscientious, 
and strove to do everything in his power to es- 
tablish peace and friendship between the North 
and the South. And two years later, when the 
Republican national convention assembled in 
Chicago to nominate a candidate for the presi- 
dency, but one name was submitted — Ulysses S. 
Grant. 

The nomination was one of the most notable 
occasions in the country's political history. Nearly 
all the great commanders of the war were there, 



PRESIDENT GRANT 195 

enthusiastic for their great chief. The delegates 
could hardly take time for the opening formalities, 
so eager were they to honor Grant. When nomina- 
tions were at last called for, General Logan rose 
and said : 

"Then, sir, in the name of the loyal citizens and 
soldiers and sailors of this great republic, in the 
name of loyalty, liberty, humanity, and justice, I 
nominate as candidate for the chief magistracy 
of this nation, Ulysses S. Grant." 

The enthusiasm that followed was boundless. 
The audience leaped to its feet as one man, and 
cheered again and again. So complete was the 
feeling of the convention that a delegate from 
South Carolina, when he could make himself 
heard, moved that the vote be taken by acclama- 
tion. But the reply was "No ! No !" The states 
wanted an opportunity to further express their 
enthusiasm, and a call of the roll was demanded. 
Alabama gave eighteen votes for Grant. The 
spokesman for California shouted, "We come here 
two thousand miles to cast our vote for General 
Grant!" Colorado said, "The Rocky Mountains 
of Colorado bring Grant all they have — six 
votes." Georgia cast eighteen votes, "heartily 
desiring to speed the restoration of the Union." 
Kansas gave him six votes "from the state of John 



1 96 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Brown." Ohio cast " forty-two votes for her illus- 
trious son." Virginia, ''rising from the grave that 
General Grant dug for her at Appomattox in 1865," 
brought him twenty votes. And so the voting 
went on with like expressions of boundless en- 
thusiasm. 

The chairman announced the result: "Gentle- 
men of the convention, the roll is completed. You 
have six hundred and fifty votes, and you have 
given six hundred and fifty votes for Ulysses S. 
Grant." 

The delegates again rose and cheered themselves 
hoarse, while a curtain at the rear of the stage 
ascended, and added to the tumult by disclosing 
a portrait of the General, supported by the Goddess 
of Liberty, with the motto above, "Match him !" 

In the campaign that followed General Grant 
himself took no part. His party managers sought 
to persuade him to make a speaking tour, but he 
steadfastly declined. "If the people wish to 
make me President, they will do so," he said. 

And as we know, they did. 



CHAPTER XXII 

Eight Years in the White House 

General Grant's unaffected manner did not 
leave him when he entered the White House, after 
simple inauguration ceremonies on the 4th of 
March. Indeed, there has not been at the head of 
the nation a truer representative of its demo- 
cratic life than President Grant. 

He went about unattended, and the humblest 
of his old friends from Galena or Georgetown was 
as welcome at the executive mansion as the greatest 
social leader, or the most distinguished visitor 
from abroad. He dressed simply on all occasions. 
It was some time before he would consent to wear 
conventional evening dress, and the white tie, which 
he especially disliked. But when he understood 
the importance attached to formal visits among 
high government officials, he insisted that they 
should be paid and returned strictly according to 
usage. He had no wish to offend social custom. 

An English newspaper correspondent who visited 
the new President was surprised to rind the Capitol 
grounds unguarded and the gates unlocked, "as 

197 



198 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

if the United States were peopled with none but 
honest men and friends. " 

"Like all great men/' the correspondent wrote, 
"he is simplicity itself. I had heard a great deal 
of the gallant soldier, but I never felt more im- 
pressed. He talks little. If possible, he receives 
every one. I found this great man affable and 
just in his remarks, courteous in his demeanor, and 
the mode in which he shakes hands told me at 
once of his sincerity and honesty. None of his 
portraits do him justice. His head is larger than 
any of the portraits represent. His beard is fair, 
and there is a peculiar softness in his eyes. And 
in the few sentences with which he favored me I 
perceived the most robust common sense. I left 
the executive mansion convinced that the United 
States had an honest man at its head — a soldier 
with an iron will." 

President Grant's loyalty to his friends of 
humbler days, and to his comrades of the army, 
was a cause of some criticism. He had always 
disliked and mistrusted professional politicians; 
and now he not unnaturally passed over such men 
in filling the many new appointments that were 
to be made. Many offices were given to soldiers, 
and he was soon charged with running what was 
called a "military government." 



EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 199 

An appointment which showed President Grant 
in his usual generous r61e, but which caused es- 
pecial faultfinding, was the naming of the Con- 
federate General James Longstreet to be surveyor 
of the port of New Orleans. 

One of the most important questions of Grant's 
first year as President was the annexation of Santo 
Domingo. The people of the island had asked to 
be made a part of the United States, and Grant was 
favorable to the idea. He believed that the annex- 
ing of the island would help solve the negro ques- 
tion in the South ; that the negroes would emigrate 
thither in large numbers, and that the lessened 
number remaining would receive better treatment. 
The plan met with strong opposition, particularly 
from Senator Sumner, who charged that Grant 
proposed the plan because he had business interests 
in Santo Domingo. 

The annexation move was rejected, but five 
months later President Grant brought the matter 
up again, and asked for an investigation of the whole 
question by a committee. He had been accused, 
he said, and he demanded that Sumner's charges 
be taken up and sifted. A commission was ap- 
pointed, and an investigation held. 

Speaking to Andrew D. White, the president of 
the commission, the President said : 



200 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

"As President of the United States I have no 
orders to give you. My duty as President ended 
with your nomination. As a man I have a right 
to give some instructions. It has been publicly 
charged that I am connected with transactions in 
the Island of Santo Domingo looking to my personal 
advantage. Now, as a man, I charge you strictly 
that if you find that I am, directly or indirectly, 
in the least degree, connected with any such trans- 
actions in the Island of Santo Domingo, drag me 
forth and expose me fully to the American people." 

The commissioners unanimously sustained the 
President, and exonerated him from any complicity 
with the transactions referred to. 

Meantime the administration under President 
Grant had carried out many other beneficial 
measures. At his recommendation, civil service 
examinations were substituted for appointment 
through political influence to certain government 
offices; the claims against England arising from 
the fitting out in an English port of the Confederate 
warship Alabama were settled by arbitration; the 
Fifteenth Amendment, compelling the Southern 
states to acknowledge the political rights of the 
negro, was passed ; and meanwhile the famous 
Ku Klux Klan, the lawless organization which 
sought by violence to prevent the emancipated 



EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 201 

slaves from asserting their independence, was 
being suppressed with firmness. Other important 
developments were the readmission into the Union, 
early in 1870, of the states of Virginia, Georgia, 
Mississippi, and Texas. 

The cares of office did not affect the President in 
his private life. He continued as considerate and 
thoughtful of his wife, and as fond of the company of 
his children. He could always be interested in 
other young people as well. A group of boys who 
were in the habit of playing baseball behind the 
White House frequently had him for a spectator. 
Sometimes he would umpire their games, and oc- 
casionally would even take a hand at the bat, to 
the delight of the boys. " After playing for a 
while," recalled one of them, "he would put 
his hands behind him, and stroll away down the 
avenue. He seemed a kind and fatherly man to 
us." 

Those were days of extreme political feeling and 
of "political mud slinging" which, happily, have 
almost passed. Public speakers and newspapers 
made the most extravagant charges against their 
political opponents, in an endeavor to blacken 
their characters. From such attacks even as 
kindly and straightforward a man as President 
Grant could not escape. 



202 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

He was very fond of Long Branch, New Jersey, 
and spent his summer vacations there with his 
family. He still loved horses, and was often to 
be seen driving a handsome team over the New 
Jersey roads. This provided certain newspapers 
with material for exaggeration. His turnouts 
were described as the most magnificent ever seen. 
The brass mountings of the harness were declared 
to be gold. Two modest cottages which he built 
were spoken of as expensive mansions. 

The particular purpose of the attacks was to show 
that he was fond of fast horses and fast living. He 
was said to "show already the effects of the larder 
and the wine cellar." Cartoonists represented 
him as a heavy, sullen-faced man, followed about 
by two sullen bull pups. As a matter of fact, 
Grant never owned a dog in his life, and did not 
care for them. 

The first serious charge made against President 
Grant arose in September, during his first year in 
the White House. A number of stockbrokers 
arranged a "corner" in gold, which resulted in a 
business panic. Quite innocently the President 
had allowed himself to accept the hospitality of 
two of the leaders involved in the "corner," and the 
visit was used to implicate him. At the time of 
the panic the President was visiting a cousin in 



EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 203 

Washington, Pennsylvania, some distance from 
the railroad, and knew nothing of the disturbance 
until it was at its height. He returned to the capi- 
tal immediately, and ordered the Treasury to sell 
five million dollars of gold. This relieved the 
market, and broke the panic. 

In spite of the attacks made upon him, President 
Grant lost none of his popularity with the people 
of the country. When the second year of his ad- 
ministration had passed, and his popularity con- 
tinued, it was seen that he would be a natural can- 
didate for a second term. His political opponents 
thereupon began working up sentiment to prevent 
his renomination, using the cry " Anything to beat 
Grant." A campaign of falsehood was brought 
to a climax in a speech by Senator Sumner before 
the United States Senate. 

Among other ridiculous charges, Sumner de- 
clared the nation to be in great peril because of 
the desire of Grant to become a permanent dictator 
of the country's policies. 

The charges had no effect. When the nominat- 
ing convention met in Philadelphia, the enthusiasm 
for Grant was as great as that shown by the Chicago 
convention four years before, and he was named 
by acclamation to run again for the presidency. 

During the campaign that followed, the charges 



204 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

made against the President by his enemies exceeded 
all their previous efforts. It is difficult to-day to 
believe that a man who had been so useful to his 
country could be made the target of such slanders. 
His life was searched through for every act which 
might be distorted to his discredit. His words 
were misquoted and made to appear falsehoods. 
Cartoonists went to the limit of coarseness in cari- 
caturing him. One always represented him as a 
drunkard wearing a crown. This was to carry out 
the idea of his alleged wish to become the " dic- 
tator" of the country. 

One of the most absurd charges against him was 
that he was already the richest President since the 
time of Washington. As a matter of fact Grant 
had saved comparatively little ; but for Mrs. Grant 
he probably would have saved nothing at all. 

During all this period, although he suffered 
keenly, President Grant remained silent. The 
answer to all his enemies came from the people, in 
his triumphant reelection. 

The chief thought in President Grant's second 
inaugural address was again the restoration of 
friendship between all sections of the country. 
To this wish he added a larger hope which showed 
a breadth of interest wider even than his own 
country. " The great Governor of the World," said 



EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 205 

the President, "is preparing the nations of the earth 
to become one nation, speaking one language; 
and the time is coming when armies and navies 
will no longer be required." 

The troubles of reconstruction were by no means 
over in the South. Rioting occurred in the streets 
of New Orleans between the " White Democracy" 
and what was called the " carpet-bag" element 
from the North — " grafters," as they would be 
termed to-day — who secured their ends through 
the ignorant negro voters. The President ex- 
pressed his sympathy for the people of the South, 
but resolutely upheld the laws passed for the pur- 
pose of bringing order out of chaos. " Treat the 
negro as a citizen and a voter, for such he is and 
must remain," he declared, "and politics will be 
divided, not on the color line, but on principle." 

The President saw that the Southern whites 
were not altogether to be blamed. Under the 
lead of the "carpet baggers," ignorant negro 
assemblymen had passed scandalous appropriation 
bills. Nevertheless, as the President said, the 
Southerners had brought these things upon them- 
selves by refusing to recognize the rights of the 
negroes, and by rejecting the Fourteenth Amend- 
ment, with its necessary and just reduction of 
Southern political power. 



206 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

"Henceforth there will be no child's play," he 
declared ; " the laws will be executed, and the peace 
will be maintained in every street and highway 
of the United States." 

The people of the South knew Grant was a 
man of his word, and this clear, determined 
statement brought the reign of lawlessness to an 
end. 

From this time on conditions steadily improved, 
and the feeling between the two sections of the 
country became kindlier. In his message to Con- 
gress in 1875 President Grant stated that the time 
had come to withdraw all federal interference with 
state affairs in the South ; that the people there 
could now be left to work out their problems in 
their own way. 

The announcement meant that with the drawing 
to a close of Grant's second term, the great work of 
reconstruction — the most difficult task that had 
ever faced a President of the United" States — had 
been practically completed. 

Up to the end of his eight years in the White 
House, more or less faultfinding with President 
Grant continued. But as soon as his term was 
ended there was a change of feeling to such friendli- 
ness that Grant was surprised and greatly affected. 
As at the conclusion of the war, wherever he went 



EIGHT YEARS IN THE WHITE HOUSE 207 

he was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and 
all manner of social functions were held in his 
honor. 

The great things he had accomplished were thus 
finally recognized. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
The Trip Abroad 

Now that the burdens of the presidency were 
off his shoulders, General Grant determined to 
take a real vacation. It was due him. Since 
the beginning of the war, now sixteen years 
past, he had had scarcely a day when he was 
entirely free. 

For years he had wished to travel. He decided 
on a trip abroad ; and in the month of May, with 
Mrs. Grant and his third son, Jesse Grant, he sailed 
from Philadelphia on the steamship Indiana. 
Great crowds saw him off, and waved farewells 
from the wharves and the decks of a fleet of vessels 
that accompanied the Indiana down the bay. 

After a rough passage, which proved the General 
to be a good sailor, the Indiana arrived at Liver- 
pool. Here, to General Grant's surprise, he found 
the ships in the harbor covered with flags, and the 
docks crowded with people, cheering and waving 
him a welcome. His surprise was increased when 
on landing he was met by the mayor of Liverpool, 

208 



THE TRIP ABROAD 209 

and was made a guest of the city. He had not 
anticipated such a reception in England. 

In welcoming him the mayor spoke briefly, 
but in warm admiration. 

" General Grant," he said, " I am proud that it has 
fallen to my lot, as Chief Magistrate of Liverpool, 
to welcome to the shores of England so distinguished 
a citizen of the United States. You have, sir, 
stamped your name on the history of the world 
by your brilliant career as a soldier, and still more 
as a statesman in the interests of peace. In the 
name of Liverpool, whose interests are so closely 
allied with your great country, I bid you heartily 
welcome, and I hope Mrs. Grant and yourself will 
enjoy your visit to Old England." 

On the following day General Grant and his 
party were shown the sights of the city and the 
great docks, and were then tendered a banquet. 
Later a reception was held, at which some ten 
thousand persons met the distinguished American. 

A similar hearty welcome awaited General Grant 
at the great manufacturing city of Manchester. 

During the Civil War the people of Manchester 
had suffered severely through the closing of their 
cotton mills, as a result of the blockade of Southern 
cotton ports. Nevertheless the city had shown 
strong sympathy for the Northern cause, notably 



210 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

by the holding of several great mass meetings 
to express their opposition to slavery. General 
Grant did not fail to recall this fact in respond- 
ing to the mayor's address of welcome. 

From Manchester the General proceeded to Lon- 
don, stopping on the way at Leicester and Bedford. 

A letter written by General Grant after his 
arrival in London is interesting, as showing the 
impression made upon him by his reception in 
England. The letter was addressed to a close 
friend, George W. Childs, of Philadelphia. In part 
it read as follows : — 

"I had proposed to leave Liverpool immediately 
on arrival and proceed to London, where I knew 
our Minister had made arrangements for the formal 
reception, and had accepted for me a few invita- 
tions of courtesy. But what was my surprise to find 
nearly all the shipping in port at Liverpool dec- 
orated with flags of all nations, and from the main- 
mast of each the flag of the Union most conspic- 
uous. The docks were lined with as many of the 
population as could find standing room, and the 
streets to the hotel where it was understood my 
party would stop were packed. The demonstra- 
tion was, to all appearances, as hearty and as 
enthusiastic as in Philadelphia on our departure. 
The Mayor was present with his state carriage, to 



THE TRIP ABROAD 211 

convey us to the hotel; and after that he took 
us to his beautiful country residence, some six 
miles out, where we were entertained with a small 
party of gentlemen, and remained over night. 
The following day a large party was given at the 
official residence of the Mayor in the city, at 
which there were some one hundred and fifty of 
the distinguished citizens and officials of the cor- 
poration present. Pressing invitations were sent 
from most of the cities in the kingdom to have me 
visit them. I accepted for a day at Manchester, 
and stopped a few moments at Leicester and at 
one other place. The same hearty welcome was 
shown at each place. ... I appreciate the fact, 
and am proud of it, that the attentions I am re- 
ceiving are intended more for our country than for 
me personally. I love to see our country honored 
and respected abroad, and I am proud that it is 
respected by most all nations, and by some even 
loved. It has always been my desire to see all 
jealousies between England and the United States 
abated, and every sore healed. Together, they 
are more powerful for the spread of commerce and 
civilization than all others combined, and can do 
more to remove causes of war by creating mutual 
interests that would be so much endangered by 
war. . . ." 



212 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

On the morning after his arrival in London, 
General Grant was formally introduced to the 
Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII. Invita- 
tions to countless dinners and receptions followed, 
and on June 15 he was presented with the freedom 
of the City of London, the greatest formal honor 
that Europe has to offer. 

The ceremonies were most imposing, and took 
place in the historic old Guildhall, in the presence 
of eight hundred invited guests. The freedom — 
a document declaring General Grant to be an 
honorary citizen, or freeman, of the city — was 
presented in a golden casket. This was a small 
but beautifully designed box of gold, supported 
at the corners by four golden eagles and at the ends 
by two female figures representing the City of 
London and the American Republic. On one side 
was a panel showing a view of the Capitol at 
Washington, and on the other a picture of the 
Guildhall. The cover was surmounted by the 
city's crest. 

The address accompanying the presentation paid 
General Grant many sincere tributes, both as a 
general and as a president. 

"We not only recognize in you a citizen of the 
United States, but one who has made a distin- 
guished mark in American history," said the 



THE TRIP ABROAD 213 

Lord Mayor, "a soldier whose military capabilities 
brought him to the front in the hour of his country's 
sorest trial, and enabled him to strike the blow 
which terminated fratricidal war and reunited 
his distracted country; who also manifested 
magnanimity in the hour of triumph, and amidst 
the national indignation created by the assassina- 
tion of the great and good Abraham Lincoln, by 
obtaining for vanquished adversaries the rights 
of capitulated brothers in arms, when some would 
have treated them as traitors to their coun- 
try. . . ." 

General Grant's response was characteristically 
modest. 

"I believe that this honor is intended quite as 
much for the country which I have had the oppor- 
tunity of serving/' he declared, "and I am glad 
that this is so, because I want to see the happiest 
relations existing, not only between the United 
States and Great Britain, but also between the 
United States and all other nations. Although a 
soldier by education and profession, I have never felt 
any sort of fondness for war, and I have never 
advocated it except as a means of peace. I hope 
that we shall always settle our differences in all 
future negotiations as amicably as we did in a 
recent instance [the Alabama claims]. I believe 



214 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

that settlement has had a happy effect on both 
countries, and that from month to month, and 
year to year, the tie of common civilization and 
common blood is getting stronger between the 
two countries. My Lord Mayor, ladies, and gentle- 
men, I again thank you for the honor you have 
done me and my country to-day." 

London's entertainment of General Grant was 
concluded with a magnificent display of fireworks 
at the Crystal Palace. One of the flaming pic- 
tures shown was a huge portrait of the General 
himself, and this was followed by a representation 
of the Capitol at Washington. During the display 
American and English national airs were played 
by massed bands, and famous opera singers led a 
chorus in the singing of "The Star-Spangled 
Banner." 

The weeks that followed brought no abatement 
in the lionizing of the great American soldier. One 
honor followed another ; and on the 26th of June 
General Grant's party proceeded to Windsor, on 
the invitation of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, 
took dinner with the queen, and remained her 
guests until the following day. 

That the desire to pay tribute to General Grant 
was universal was shown on his return to London. 
He was there called upon by a deputation of 



THE TRIP ABROAD 215 

workingmen from many different trades, and was 
presented with a handsomely engrossed address 
by the representative of the Iron Founders' So- 
ciety. General Grant received the workmen with 
marked cordiality, and declared that no other 
reception had given him greater pleasure. 

"I recognize the fact that whatever there is of 
greatness in the United States, or indeed in any 
other country, is due to the labor performed," 
he said, in replying to the deputation. "The 
laborer is the author of all greatness and wealth. 
Without labor there would be no government, or 
no leading class, or nothing to preserve. ..." 

Early in July General Grant and his party left 
England for the continent. At Ostend they were 
welcomed by a representative of King Leopold of 
Belgium, who placed a royal railway carriage at 
their disposal. Thus luxuriously, they traveled to 
the old and interesting city of Ghent, then to the 
capital, Brussels. There, among other historic 
places, they visited the ancient and beautiful 
Hotel de Ville, or city hall, and wrote their names 
in the Livre d'Or, a book in which distinguished 
visitors had inscribed their names for many gener- 
ations. 

From Brussels the party traveled to Cologne 
and Coblentz, on the Rhine; to Wiesbaden and 



216 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Frankfort, everywhere being greeted by great 
crowds anxious to see the famous American. 

In August the General and his party recrossed 
the English Channel and made a tour of Scotland, 
where he was received with honors similar to those 
showered upon him elsewhere. 

In all his speeches in reply to addresses of wel- 
come, and in letters to friends at home, General 
Grant continued modestly to describe the atten- 
tions paid him as being really paid to the United 
States. In part this may have been so, but with 
the great mass of people their applause was a 
tribute of admiration for Grant himself, as a man 
who had risen from a humble station in life to the 
highest place his country had to offer. The English 
middle classes were especially enthusiastic. At a 
reception in Newcastle not less than 80,000 
workingmen and miners gathered to greet the ex- 
President, and to hear him speak. 

This probably was the greatest and most 
enthusiastic demonstration of General Grant's 
tour abroad. Previous to the speech-making, 
which took place on a wide plain outside the city, 
a great procession of workingmen's societies was 
held. Banners with various devices were borne. 
The Operative Painters carried a picture repre- 
senting the breaking of the chains of slavery, and 



THE TRIP ABROAD 217 

the inscription, " Welcome to the Liberator." 
The Tanners bore a banner with the words, "Wel- 
come Back, General Grant, from Arms to Art," 
and, "Nothing Like Leather" — in reference to 
the fact that General Grant himself had once been 
in the tanning business. 

In October General Grant once more crossed 
to the continent, to begin a year of traveling from 
country to country. Everywhere he was received 
with the same unusual honors, everywhere there 
were crowds to greet him. Indeed, the only varia- 
tion consisted in the different customs of different 
lands in honoring a distinguished visitor, and in 
the sightseeing each country had to offer. 

He visited France, the southern part of Italy, 
then the island of Sicily. Here he spent a novel 
Christmas on board the American warship 
Vandalia. The dinner was served in the evening, 
in a dining saloon decorated with flowers, green 
vines, and bunting; and on returning to the 
deck, General Grant found the other neighboring 
ships — American, British, and German — ablaze 
with fireworks. The loud cheering of the sailors 
told him that the display was in his honor. 

Malta was next visited, then Egypt, where 
General Grant was the special guest of the khedive, 
and lived in a palace in Cairo. In a special steamer, 



218 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

also placed at his disposal, he made a thousand- 
mile journey up the Nile, and saw many of the 
wonderful pyramids, temples, and ruined cities 
of the Land of the Pharaohs. 

From Egypt General Grant sailed for the Holy 
Land, and landed at Jaffa. The General had not 
expected a reception at this ancient port, so often 
mentioned in the Bible. To his surprise, several 
of the narrow, crooked streets were decorated with 
ribbons, wreaths, and flags, and over one was an 
archway bearing the words, " Welcome, General 
Grant." 

A further unexpected greeting came a few days 
later. On the way to Jerusalem, by rough, jolting 
wagons without tops, the General's party found a 
large escort awaiting them on the banks of a brook 
at Koleniyeh — the brook in which David found 
the stones for his famous encounter with Goliath. 

The escort included a picturesque troop of 
Turkish cavalry; and for General Grant's use a 
beautiful white Arab horse, with gold-mounted 
trappings. In this stately fashion, riding beside 
a Turkish officer at the head of the column, General 
Grant entered Jerusalem. 

The feature of the General's stay in the Holy 
City was of course the visiting of its many places 
of sacred interest. With priests of various churches 



THE TRIP ABROAD 219 

as guides, even those of the Mohammedan faith, 
he viewed the Mount of Olives, the Garden of 
Gethsemane, Calvary. Beyond the city he visited 
Nazareth, Bethany, and Bethlehem. 

The war between Russia and Turkey, which had 
just ended, affected General Grant's reception in 
Constantinople, where he arrived early in March. 
This pleased rather than disappointed the traveler, 
however. He enjoyed himself quietly, visiting the 
mosques, bazaars, and other places of interest in 
the Turkish metropolis ; then on to Athens. 

The citizens of the Greek capital welcomed him 
with enthusiasm. In fact, he was showered with 
more invitations to receptions, dinners, and other 
functions than he could have accepted in many 
months. An unusual honor paid him, during a 
great fireworks display, was the illumination of 
the historic Parthenon, "the most perfect of all 
buildings." 

From Athens the General passed on to Rome, 
where his countless invitations included a great 
military review, a state dinner by King Humbert, 
and a pleasant, informal audience with Pope Leo 
XIII. 

The month of May found General Grant travel- 
ing through France, Holland, and Germany. His 
reception in the German capital, Berlin, was not 



220 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

less cordial than it had been elsewhere. A review 
of troops was arranged by the Crown Prince, now 
Emperor William, and a grand dinner was given 
in the General's honor by Prince Bismarck. The 
meeting of the great American soldier and the 
great German statesman was one of the notable 
incidents of General Grant's tour. 

The Fourth of July found the General and his 
party in Hamburg. In honor of the day, as well 
as of the distinguished visitor, a military band 
awakened the General early in the morning by 
playing American airs before his hotel. The ship- 
ping in the harbor also celebrated with a lavish 
display of bunting and German and American flags. 
In the evening a dinner was given the General by the 
American residents. 

An incident of the banquet showed that General 
Grant had lost none of his modesty after a year of 
almost constant lionizing. In the course of the 
speech-making he was toasted as " the man who 
had saved the country." 

"What saved the Union," said our ever-generous 
great man in reply, "was the coming forward of 
the young men of the nation. ... To their 
devotion we owe the salvation of the Union. The 
humblest soldier who carried a musket is entitled 
to as much credit for the results of the war as those 






THE TRIP ABROAD 221 

who were in command. So long as our young men 
are animated by this spirit, there will be no fear 
for the Union." 

Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, next enter- 
tained the ex-President, and on the 13 th of July 
10,000 Norwegians greeted him on the docks at 
Christiania. His stay here, and the trip through 
rural Norway and Sweden, the General afterward 
described as one of the most enjoyable parts of 
.his journeyings. Every town and village through 
which he passed was decorated with arches and 
flags. 

He also enjoyed his visit to Russia — to St. 
Petersburg (now Petrograd), to Moscow, and to 
Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Vienna, the home 
of Mozart, Strauss, and Beethoven, was the next 
stop, then Lyons, in the south of France, and 
Bordeaux. 

" Sunny Spain" welcomed General Grant in the 
latter part of October — with military reviews, 
dinners, and receptions, mixed with sightseeing. 
The young king, Alfonso XII, who was extremely 
friendly, received his visitor with the honors due 
a captain general, the highest military rank in the 
Spanish army. 

General Grant's stay in Madrid barely escaped 
being made memorable by a tragic happening. On 



222 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

the evening previous to their departure, while the 
General and Mrs. Grant were seated on the hotel 
balcony, the king passed at the head of some of his 
troops, and waved them a cordial greeting. A 
moment after, a shot was fired at the king by a 
would-be assassin. Happily, the young ruler es- 
caped. 

From Spain General Grant passed on into Por- 
tugal, and visited Lisbon. The King of Portugal, 
Don Luis I, hearing of the General's arrival, 
came into the city specially to meet him, and later 
received him in formal audience at the royal palace. 
After a long, friendly conversation, his majesty 
asked the General to accept the Grand Cross of 
the Tower and Sword, a high Portuguese decora- 
tion. General Grant declined, however, as the 
wearing of foreign decorations is opposed to 
American practice. 

Cordova, Spain, was next visited ; then Seville, 
and Cadiz ; and once more Paris and London. On 
the 3d of January, 1879, the General fulfilled a 
promise made on his arrival in Europe, and visited 
Dublin, Ireland. His arrival was the occasion of 
a most enthusiastic demonstration. The freedom 
of the city was presented to him, in a carved bog- 
oak casket, and an elaborate banquet followed. 

Other cities in Ireland also extended a hearty 



THE TRIP ABROAD 223 

welcome. At Londonderry he found a "sea of 
faces" awaiting him. At Belfast the mills were 
closed down, so that the workmen might greet the 
noted visitor, and all the public buildings were 
decorated with the British and American flags. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
Turning toward Home 

The trip to Ireland concluded General Grant's 
European tour. He returned to France, and on 
January 24, 1879, sailed from Marseilles for 
Alexandria, Egypt; proceeded by train to Suez, 
on the Red Sea, and there boarded the steamship 
Venetia for Bombay. 

As the date of sailing was earlier than that first 
planned, General Grant had looked forward to 
arriving in Bombay unannounced, like any ordi- 
nary traveler, and to seeing India in the quiet 
way he preferred. He was to be disappointed. 
The Venetia entered Bombay harbor to find 
the shipping alive with flags and the wharves 
crowded with soldiers, natives, and Europeans. 

Before the vessel reached the dock, a boat came 
alongside with an officer bearing a welcome from 
the governor of the Presidency of Bombay, and 
offering the General the use of the Government 
House, or official residence, during his stay in the 
city. On the landing, a military guard of honor 

224 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 225 

presented arms, while a band played the American 
national air, and high English and native officials 
welcomed General Grant formally to the shores 
of India. A troop of native cavalry then escorted 
the party to the Government House, through 
streets crowded with thousands of dark-skinned 
natives of every type and rank. 

The welcome to Bombay was but the beginning 
of attentions paid General Grant by both English 
and native officials during his entire stay in India. 
At Agra, famous for its wonderful building, the 
beautiful Taj Mahal, which he next visited, he 
was met by elephants sent by the Maharajah of 
Jeypore to convey him over the next stage of his 
journey. At Bhurtpoor the party were provided 
with carriages drawn by camels for their sight- 
seeing. 

Lucknow, made famous by the defense of its 
garrison during the Indian mutiny of 1857, was next 
visited. Here the General found an American 
mission school for girls. The school, which was 
held in the open, under a great tree, greeted 
their distinguished visitor with the singing in Eng- 
lish of "John Brown." 

Calcutta, the capital of India, was reached on 
the 10th of March. The General was warmly 
welcomed by Lord Lytton, the viceroy, who ten- 
Q 



226 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

dered him a banquet which probably was the most 
picturesque event of his travels. In addition to 
many British officials in uniform, it was attended 
by a great array of Indian princes and potentates, 
attired in the richest and most brilliant costumes of 
the East. 

Other places visited were Delhi ; Benares, where 
many thousands of Indian pilgrims were bathing 
in the sacred waters of the river Ganges ; and Al- 
lahabad, the Hindoo "City of God/' a Mecca for 
countless pilgrims. 

General Grant greatly enjoyed his tour through 
India, and it was with regret at not being able to 
prolong his visit that he set sail for Burmah, across 
the Bay of Bengal. After a brief stay at Rangoon, 
he proceeded to Singapore, in the Straits Settle- 
ments, and then turned aside to accept for a few 
days an invitation from King Chulahlongkorn of 
Siam. 

The visit to China, which followed, was one of 
the interesting periods of General Grant's tour. 
His coming had been duly heralded. 

" White barbarians'' of rank were a novelty in 
China in 1879, an d m order that the great Ameri- 
can might be paid suitable honors, proclamations 
were issued to the people. 

One read in part as follows : — 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 227 

" We have just heard that the King of America, being 
on friendly terms with China, will leave America early 
in the third month, bringing with him a suite of officers, 
etc., all complete, on board the ship. It is said that 
he is bringing a large number of rare presents with 
him, and that he will be here in Canton about the 6th 
or gth of May." 

Owing to adverse tides, it was evening when the 
United States gunboat Ashuelot, by which General 
Grant continued his journey from Hong Kong, 
arrived at Canton. A great crowd that had been 
waiting all the afternoon had disappeared, but the 
steamship-landing was decorated with lanterns, and 
Chinese gunboats and junks in the river burned 
blue lights, fired rockets, and displayed American 
flags, by way of welcome. 

The following day General Grant was to pay a 
formal visit to the viceroy of the province. Great 
crowds gathered in the gardens of the American 
Consulate, waiting for the procession that was to 
escort the "King of America." The officers of 
the American warship were present, in full uniform, 
and the Chinese turned from one to another in 
perplexity, unable to decide which of them was 
the visiting monarch. It did not enter their 
minds that the quietly-dressed man sitting on the 
piazza could be the "king" in question. 



228 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

At last a Tartar officer arrived with a detach- 
ment of soldiers, followed by coolies bearing sedan 
chairs. General Grant, attired in evening dress, 
entered the largest of the chairs, and the mystery 
was solved. Greatly, of course, to the disappoint- 
ment of the crowd. "Tins is a 'barbarian' king, 
truly," they doubtless thought, " without even a 
feather in his hat!" 

The procession would have seemed a strange 
one to our eyes. First rode the Tartar officer, 
in his brilliant silk uniform, on a small gray pony. 
Then came a detachment of soldiers, armed with 
spears and ancient muskets, who forced the crowd 
back and kept up a constant shouting, warning 
the people to behave themselves and show respect 
to the "foreign barbarian." Next came the 
General, in his chair. 

As befitting his rank, General Grant's chair was 
an elaborate conveyance, with a silver globe crown- 
ing its narrow roof. Its color was green, green 
being the color next in rank to yellow, which was 
sacred to the use of the emperor. The chair was 
swung on a long bamboo pole, and borne by eight 
men. After the General came more soldiers, then 
the members of the General's party, in chairs. 

The distance to the palace was three miles. The 
streets for the entire distance were packed with 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 229 

people. There was no cheering or other applause, 
however. The crowd stood and stared in silence. 
This was one of the new experiences that China 
provided. Chinese crowds make no demonstra- 
tion; they simply stand and gaze with quietly 
curious faces. Even the strange fact that the 
"King of America" was not attired in all the colors 
of the rainbow brought no outward expression of 
what must have been an acute disappointment. 

Probably the viceroy was similarly disappointed. 
If so, he concealed the fact, and met General Grant 
with perfect courtesy, as did also a great company 
of officials and high army officers in brilliant silken 
costumes. 

The banquet which the viceroy tendered General 
Grant was a memorable function. Seventy courses 
were served, and included many strange dishes. 
Cake and fruit-rolls made the first course; then 
followed in order, apricot kernels and melon seeds ; 
ham with bamboo sprouts; smoked duck and 
cucumbers ; pickled chicken and beans ; red shrimps 
with leeks; spiced sausage with celery; fish with 
fir-tree cones and sweet pickles ; peaches pre- 
served in honey ; fresh fruits; fruits dried in honey ; 
chestnuts; crab apples with honey gold-cake; 
water chestnuts; fresh thorn apples; bird's-nest 
soup ; roast duck ; mushrooms and pigeons' eggs ; 



230 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

sharks' fins and sea crabs, as well as many other 
startling and unusual viands. 

Having survived the viceroy's hospitality, Gen- 
eral Grant resumed his journey and sailed for 
Shanghai. Here he was received with a thunder- 
ing naval welcome by the American man-of-war 
Monocacy, and Chinese, French, German, and 
English warships. The chief event of the General's 
stay at Shanghai was a wonderful illumination of 
the city, the harbor front, and the shipping in the 
harbor. " Wherever you looked," wrote a member 
of the party, "was a blaze of light and fire; of 
rockets careering in the air, of Roman lights, and 
every variety of fire. The ships in the harbor were 
a blaze of color, and looked as if they were pieces 
of fireworks." 

The various consulates, club houses, hotels, and 
public buildings were outlined in lanterns, and bore 
in flaming letters such words as : 

"Welcome to Grant." 

" The Fame of Grant 
Encircles the World." 

"Washington, Lincoln, Grant — 
Three Immortal Americans." 

During the evening a firemen's procession was 
held, each engine preceded by a band playing 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 231 

American airs. The favorites were " John Brown'' 
and " Marching through Georgia." 

At Tien Tsin, General Grant's next stop, he met 
the famous viceroy, Li Hung Chang. The Chinese 
statesman showed himself well acquainted with 
General Grant's military career, and the two 
great men of the two widely different countries 
formed a lasting friendship. Among the honors 
paid the General by Li Hung Chang was the use 
of a sedan chair lined with yellow silk. Such a 
chair had never before been used by any one in 
China save the emperor. 

General Grant's visit to the Chinese capital, 
Peking, which followed, was without special 
incident, due partly to the fact that the emperor, 
then a mere child of seven years, was too 
young to receive distinguished visitors. Instead, 
the General paid a formal visit to Prince Kung, 
the Emperor's uncle, and devoted his time 
chiefly to sightseeing in this, the greatest of 
Chinese cities. He was much interested in the 
great wall surrounding the city — eighteen miles 
in circumference, and wide enough to permit 
twelve horsemen, riding abreast, to traverse its 
top. 

The stay in Peking was short, and returning to 
Tien Tsin, the General and his party boarded the 



232 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

United States warship Richmond, and sailed for 
Japan. 

The Flowery Kingdom's reception of General 
Grant was as hearty as that of China. When the 
Richmond arrived in Nagasaki Harbor, on the 21st 
of June, the entire city was a flutter of flags, and 
the waterfront was crowded with a picturesque 
throng to greet the ''American Mikado." The 
Richmond ran up the Japanese standard, and fired 
twenty-one guns, whereupon the Japanese forts and 
warships replied gun for gun with crashing salutes. 
A state barge appeared, and Prince Dati, a noble- 
man of the highest rank, boarded the Richmond, 
and formally welcomed General Grant in the name 
of the Emperor of Japan. 

The American party went ashore in the barge. 
At the landing they ascended steps covered with 
red cloth, between ranks of soldiers and banks of 
people crowding every inch of space on either hand. 

Jinrikishaws — light, two-wheeled carriages 
pulled by " rickshaw" men — had been provided 
to convey the party to their stopping-place. 
This was a normal school which had been evac- 
uated and prepared specially for the General's 
coming. The school was situated a half mile from 
the landing ; and the entire route was decorated 
with American and Japanese flags entwined, and 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 233 

with arches of green boughs and flowers. The 
crowds, in their picturesque, many-colored cos- 
tumes, bowed low as the General passed. 

The several days spent in Nagasaki brought 
an almost constant round of entertainment, with 
fireworks and wonderful lantern illuminations of 
the entire city at night. One of the most elaborate 
events was a dinner tendered by the citizens of 
Nagasaki, and given in an old temple. It was 
novel in many respects. Each guest had a diminu- 
tive table to himself, and the leading merchants of 
the city acted as waiters, each assisted by a small 
army of attendants dressed in the costumes of old 
Japan. The bill of fare, while not as lengthy as 
that of the memorable dinner at Canton, included 
many strange dishes, and from time to time the 
banquet was interrupted by a programme of music 
and dancing. One dance which amused the 
General was a pantomime representing a dragon 
at play, performed by eight tiny children, just old 
enough to toddle. 

From Nagasaki General Grant passed on, aboard 
the Richmond, for Yokohama, there to receive 
another enthusiastic welcome of fluttering flags, 
music, booming guns, and immense, picturesque 
Japanese crowds. 

In part the welcome at Yokohama was also the 



234 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

greeting of Tokio, which is but twenty miles 
distant; and when the preliminary ceremonies at 
Yokohama had concluded, the General boarded 
a special train and proceeded to the capital. There, 
in the emperor's private carriage, he was driven 
through streets decorated with flowers and ever- 
greens, and lined with troops, to the emperor's 
beautiful summer palace, which had been prepared 
for him. 

The stay in Tokio was an almost uninterrupted 
succession of fetes, banquets, and other forms of 
entertainment. The most notable incident was 
one which we would have considered extremely 
commonplace. 

The emperor, on meeting General Grant, shook 
him by the hand. Simple enough ! But in doing 
this the Mikado broke a custom of Japanese 
royalty dating back more than a thousand years! 
For the Japanese imperial family is the most 
ancient in the world, coming down in unbroken 
succession from the year 660 B.C. 

The day following General Grant's arrival in 
Tokio was the Glorious Fourth — his second 
spent in a foreign land ; and in honor of the occa- 
sion the General was overwhelmed with visitors. 
Princes of the imperial family, princesses, members 
of the cabinet, naval and military officers, minis- 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 235 

ters, consuls, and citizens called at the summer 
palace in an endless stream of carriages and 'rick- 
shaws. In the evening there was a Fourth of July 
party at one of the summer gardens, at which the 
General met the American residents of Tokio. 

While social attentions kept the General busy, he 
yet found time for sightseeing, and made a number 
of excursions into the country surrounding the cap- 
ital. Everywhere he was received with the greatest 
courtesy, and greatly enjoyed the picturesque scen- 
ery and life of this most picturesque of countries. 

Indeed, so thoroughly did General Grant enjoy 
Japan that he prolonged his stay, and at last, 
with genuine regret, made preparations to leave! 
The departure was attended with as much cere- 
mony as the General's arrival. Troops lined the 
entire route from the summer palace to the rail- 
way station, and the streets were thronged with 
people in holiday dress. A train decorated with 
American and Japanese flags entwined bore the 
party to Yokohama, where were more soldiers and 
surging crowds. The shipping in the harbor was 
again bright with bunting, and when General 
Grant and his party, aboard the City of Tokio, 
passed from the bay and headed east for the long 
voyage to San Francisco, a roar of guns from war- 
ships and land batteries boomed a last farewell. 



236 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

The voyage across the Pacific was without inci- 
dent, and on the 20th of September, 1879, the 
City of Tokio arrived off the Golden Gate. 

General Grant's welcome home to the shores of 
America was a fitting climax to the reception 
accorded him around the world. A fleet of 
steamers and yachts met the City of Tokio 
down the bay, while guns boomed until the harbor 
was cloudy with smoke, bells rang, and factory 
whistles tooted and screamed. Every vantage 
point overlooking the channel was black with 
cheering crowds. 

It was dusk when the General landed. A great 
procession was awaiting him, and escorted him, 
through streets draped with bunting and bright 
with thousands of lights and bonfires, to the 
Palace Hotel, where a chorus of five hundred voices 
sang an ode of greeting. 

The whole-hearted welcome thus begun by San 
Francisco followed General Grant as he traveled 
eastward. At every station crowds of people 
were gathered to see and cheer him. At Chicago, 
where he arrived during the annual meeting of 
the Army of the Tennessee, he was given an 
especially warm welcome. 

He reached Philadelphia on December 12 — 
and the great, world-encircling tour was ended. 



TURNING TOWARD HOME 237 

Without doubt General Grant's journey round 
the globe, because of the universal honors paid 
him, was the most remarkable of its kind in the 
world's history. It was, in fact, a triumphal 
tour of two and a half years' duration. In the 
course of his journeyings General Grant probably 
saw, and had been seen by, more people than any 
other human being since the world began. 



CHAPTER XXV 
"Let Us Have Peace" 

The honors paid General Grant during his two- 
years' tour had made a great impression in the 
United States. The General's political friends 
determined to take advantage of this, and early 
in 1880 they began a movement to make him a 
presidential candidate for a third term. At first 
Grant was strongly opposed to the idea, but finally 
was won over, and consented. 

"I owe so much to the Union men of the coun- 
try," he said, "that if they think my chances are 
better for election than those of other probable 
candidates, I cannot decline, if the nomination is 
tendered without seeking on my part." 

Grant's name was presented at the Republican 
convention by Roscoe Conkling. It was received 
with unexpected opposition. Although a majority 
of the delegates were Grant's warm friends, many 
were opposed to any president serving for a third 
term. The contest was long drawn out, and finally 
the nomination went to James A. Garfield. Grant 
was much hurt and disappointed. However, he 

238 



LET US HAVE PEACE" 



239 



at once promised Garfield his support, and the 
latter was elected. 

When General Grant completed his last year as 
President, he had no permanent home. He owned 
the house given him by the citizens of Galena, 
and a beautiful residence in Philadelphia, the gift 
of the Union League Club of that city, but he 
had not lived in either for any length of time. In 
1 88 1 he decided to settle in New York, and in 
August of that year bought a house near Central 
Park. It was about this time that several of 
his friends in New York raised a trust fund of 
$250,000 for Mrs. Grant. 

General Grant's love for his mother was still 
one of the strongest traits of his character. When 
she died in 1883, at Jersey City Heights, the 
General, at the funeral, said to the officiating 
pastor, "In the remarks which you make, speak 
of her only as a simple-hearted, earnest Christian. 
Make no reference to me ; she gained nothing by 
any position I have filled, or any honors that have 
been paid me. I owe all this, and all I am, to her 
earnest, modest, and sincere piety." 

General Grant came to New York with the 
intention of engaging in some business. His first 
venture was unfortunate. He became the partner 
of a young Wall Street banker, investing his entire 



240 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

fortune, and in May, 1884, while laid up from a 
heavy fall, he learned that the firm was bankrupt, 
through frauds committed by his partner. 

This blow was the greatest General Grant had 
ever suffered. That the name of Grant should be 
connected with frauds was almost unbearable to 
him. In addition, his entire fortune was gone, 
even the gift of $250,000 to Mrs. Grant. 

But in his adversity, and now broken in health, 
Grant was no less courageous than on the battle- 
field. At once he began the financial battle of 
life all over again. 

The Century Company had once asked the 
General for a magazine article on the battle of 
Shiloh. The request was now repeated, and an 
offer of five hundred dollars made for the story. 
General Grant was surprised and delighted at the 
amount, and accepted the offer gladly, as a God- 
send in his trying circumstances. His article was 
printed in the Century Magazine for February, 1885. 

The General had never before written for 
publication. His honesty and directness of mind 
and unusual memory, however, enabled him to 
write so satisfactory an article that the price of- 
fered was doubled, and he was asked to continue, 
and tell of the capture of Vicksburg. This ap- 
peared in September, 1885. 



"LET US HAVE PEACE" 241 

The publishers then asked for a complete story 
of General Grant's life, to be issued in book form. 
If the General was surprised at the returns from 
his magazine articles, he was unbelievably aston- 
ished at the offers made for his " Memoirs." Mark 
Twain, the humorist, a warm personal friend, and 
a member of the publishing firm of Charles L. 
Webster & Co., offered the General a royalty 
check of $25,000 in advance for the publishing 
rights. The arrangement finally made was that the 
General should receive twenty per cent of the selling 
price of the book. 

And here it may be said that in February of the 
following year Mrs. Grant received from Webster 
& Co. a check for $200,000. which was the largest 
single royalty check ever drawn by a publisher. 
Thus General Grant's desire to provide for the 
remaining years of his wife, his chief purpose in 
writing the " Memoirs," was fully realized. 

It was in the fall of 1884, while working on the 
story of his life, that General Grant first complained 
of a pain in his throat and a difficulty in swallowing. 
The trouble increased and greatly interfered with 
his work. After a time he found it impossible to 
take solid food, and began to lose strength, until 
at last he was confined to the house. 

In March of the year following, 1885, General 

R 



242 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

Grant's financial anxieties were satisfactorily ad- 
justed by the passage of a bill through Congress 
restoring him to his former rank of general, with 
full pay. But it was too late to be of material 
service to the stricken hero. On the ioth of March 
an examination revealed the fact that he was suffer- 
ing from a malady of the gravest character. 

When the news was published it brought words of 
sorrow and sympathy from every corner of the 
globe. Prayers for the General's recovery were 
offered throughout the land. His strength con- 
tinued to diminish, and on the 5th of April it ap- 
peared as if the end were close at hand. 

But the patient made a wonderful rally. "I 
want to finish my book," he said; and the deter- 
mination seemed to renew his strength. 

Warm weather came, and his friend James W. 
Drexel placed at the General's service a cottage 
on Mount McGregor, near Saratoga Springs. He 
was moved thither on the 16th of June. But 
even in the clearer air of a higher altitude he had 
little rest. Two days after his arrival at the cot- 
tage he wrote this pathetic note : — 

"It is just a week since I have spoken. My pain 
is continuous." 

Meantime, notwithstanding his pain and weak- 
ness, he was working steadily on his "Memoirs." 



11 LET US HAVE PEACE " 243 

At last the task was completed. It appeared as 
if the purpose to finish what he had undertaken 
alone had kept him alive. He rapidly grew 
weaker, and early on the morning of July 23, 
1885, surrounded by his family, the great com- 
mander quietly breathed his last. 

So, working for others almost to the end, the man 
who had done the most to bring the nation through 
the great Civil War to peace and a renewal of 
friendship, passed to his own peace. 

The news of General Grant's death, although 
expected, caused the most profound sorrow 
throughout the nation. Everywhere bells were 
tolled, flags were lowered to half-mast, and public 
buildings were draped in mourning. 

The funeral was held in New York City. It 
was such as had not been witnessed since that of 
Napoleon, or the Duke of Wellington. The 
magnificent funeral car, drawn by twenty-four 
black horses, left the City Hall shortly before ten 
o'clock in the forenoon. Following the car, to 
the slow beat of muffled drums and the distant 
boom of minute guns, marched an army greater 
than many Grant had commanded — an army of 
veterans who had fought under him, of National 
Guards and regulars, infantry, cavalry, artillery, 
sailors; a vast, sorrowing army passing slowly 



244 ULYSSES S. GRANT 

through the crowded, silent streets until far into 
the afternoon. 

Finally, with simple ceremonies, concluding with 
the soldier's last farewell, the blowing of "Taps," 
the famous general was laid to rest. 

On the same day, in nearly every other city in 
the country, memorial services were being held, 
bells were toiling, and cannon were firing at minute 
intervals. In some cities processions took place 
in which thousands of soldiers participated. Me- 
morial services were also held in London and 
Paris, and countless flags were lowered to half- 
mast. 

In a magnificent tomb, commandingly located 
on the noble Hudson, our nation's greatest gen- 
eral rests. His last honors may seem to be a 
glorification of arms and of war, yet there can be 
no doubt but that the words over his imposing 
tomb are those that Grant himself would have 
chosen : 

LET US HAVE PEACE. 



Printed in the United States of America. 



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